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How Are Drones Improving Industrial Inspections?

January 02, 2022

drone industrial inspection

Inspections keep assets running safely and reliably at peak performance, but the process of inspecting itself can often be drawn out and slow, causing considerable downtime and safety concerns. But being necessary, you’d just have to account for the loss of productivity and costs right? Not necessarily.

You can reduce the downtime caused, minimize safety hazards and increase inspection efficiency by using drones inspection instead of ground teams and expensive equipment.

Why Use Drones for Inspections?

When it’s time for inspections, it’s always a stressful period. There are a million health and safety procedures, redundancies on redundancies, shutting down assets, and the dreaded productivity drop. However, even with a well-thought-out and practiced inspection routine, inspectors are still exposed to hazards. Improving the inspection process can improve employee safety, increase asset reliability, strengthen productivity, and reduce downtime.

Drone inspections are more cost-effective than traditional methods, and they provide better data quality with fewer interruptions or disruptions to operations. In addition, inspectors wouldn’t have to expose themselves to hazards anymore; in fact they can remain at the safety of a control station while the drone does the hard and dangerous work.

Drones are used in a variety of industries from Oil and Gas to Power and Utilities, wind, and solar plants. Something that makes drones attractive is the ability to fulfill more than one task. So instead of owning and maintaining expensive specialized equipment, you just have a drone with interchangeable payloads.

Apart from just making the inspection process easier, safer and better drones also empower you with better data. Traditional inspection methods only provide limited visibility, with most of it from eye level. The aerial drone gives you data from multiple angles. But it doesn’t stop there; improved visibility is great, but so is higher accuracy or better resolution. Drones can be fitted with extremely precise sensors that produce accurate georeferenced data. The insight that drones provide ensures greater control over monitoring and helps you make decisions faster based on accurate data.

Benefits of Inspection Drones

Better Data Collection

Accurate images allow drones to provide better data collection. Since drones don’t get tired or sick, you can expect accurate inspection results.

Accurate images also mean drones are less likely to miss key components of the target area, which means drones are more efficient at pinpointing issues rather than wasting time on areas that are not of concern.

Faster Decision-making

The drones speed up decision-making by providing more accurate information. Drones also allow you to make decisions based on live video footage, providing real-time data. This means drones are very good at identifying issues as soon as they happen.

Increased Efficiency

Drones can fly many kilometers per hour depending on the model, drones are able to complete multiple inspections in a day. This efficiency is almost exponential, when you need data but don’t have time to wait, simple, use multiple drones!

Reduced Downtime

When drones are not in use, they can be quickly and easily deployed for the next inspection. With traditional methods, inspectors have to climb up ladders or scaffolds, which leads to a lot of downtime. Additionally, in certain assets like a Flare Stack in Oil and Gas fields, can be inspected while still operational. This eliminates a massive amount of downtime.

Safer Inspections

Aerial inspections allow you to inspect areas that are difficult or dangerous to access with manned aircraft or on foot. This is especially helpful when it comes to inspecting bridges, wind turbines, and other tall structures.

What’s stopping you from using drones?

Inspection drones are not just for the big businesses, they can be used in many different industries. So if you’re still asking yourself why should your business start using drones for inspections, then the answer is: there is no good reason not to.

Who Benefits from Inspection Drones?

Drone inspections are very beneficial to wind energy, transmission lines, solar farms, pipelines (onsite or remote), towers/pipelines, towers/pipelines (onsite or remote), bridges, and cell towers.

What is Inspection Drones?

Inspection drones are technologically advanced remote-controlled aircraft that come equipped with high-end cameras which allow necessary information to be gathered from areas too dangerous or difficult to reach for a human inspector.

Why drones?

Drones provide an efficient and safe method to conduct aerial inspections without shutting down operations or disrupting your workflow. Using drones, inspectors can improve their inspection speed and can quickly and easily start the next inspection. Additionally, in traditional methods, inspectors have to climb up ladders or scaffolds, which leads to a lot of downtime and safety hazards.

How can drones help your business?

Drones can provide better data with an improved resolution that would otherwise be impossible via traditional inspection methods. Drones can also provide live video footage, which allows for faster decision-making based on accurate data. Additionally, drones help avoid potential hazards to inspectors by flying in difficult or dangerous areas to access. Drones are a cost-effective and efficient way to conduct industrial inspections. Essentially, they make your inspection process faster with reduced downtime, they empower you with better data that improves your decision making. Finally, they are a great way to reduce downtime.

Are you considering drones and don’t know where to start? Or you’ve already done your research but just need a reliable drone partner— get in touch with us.