SGS Granted U.S. Patent for Retro Positive Material Identification System

PRLog (Press Release) - Nov 27, 2009 -
United States Patent No. 7,596,419 has been assigned to SGS North America for a Positive Material Identification inspection system. After an extensive examination process, the patent was published by the United States Patent and Trade Mark Office on September 29, 2009.

This protected inspection system was created to satisfy client requirements related to retro Positive Material Identification (PMI) (http://www.assetintegrity.sgs.com/assetintegrity/conventi...). PMI is a critical, part of many Asset Integrity Management (AIM) programs. There are obvious applications of PMI during new construction as well as for systems exposed to new and evolving demands. Clients use the new PMI system to determine the alloy composition of piping and vessel materials in order to verify that only the correct materials are being used for their intended service. This SGS innovation significantly increases the effectiveness of the inspection process and enhances the usefulness of the collected data while ensuring higher levels of accuracy and completeness.

The SGS system links CAD drawings, a PMI database, field load sheets, and third party commercial data loggers. It enables pre-selection of required inspection locations where PMI analysis should be conducted and uniquely identifies each of them. This optimized approach provides significant improvements for finding and reporting non-compliant materials plus performing future evaluations in response to ever-evolving fluid processing changes.

The portable nature of the system’s equipment enables PMI to be performed by trained and skilled inspectors almost anywhere. Plants and facilities, critical process components, and even raw materials can be verified, and the resulting details can be mapped into the Mechanical Integrity Management System (MIMS) (http://www.assetintegrity.sgs.com/assetintegrity/mims_ass...) to help prevent unexpected failures, unplanned downtime, and/or extended time between maintenance.

SGS Industrial Services has the knowledge, expertise, and experience to help improve the integrity of your assets and processes anywhere in the world.

For more information please contact:

SGS Industrial Services
SGS Competence Center Asset Integrity Management

Richard Cook
Senior Technical Services Manager
t: 1-888-215-2671
Website: www.sgs.com/assetintegrity

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