PRESS RELEASE
For Immediate Release
Date: February 16, 2015
Contact:
Eric Yates
Newton Labs
425-251-9600
eyates@newtonlabs.com
Innovative In-Tank Inspector Robot Displayed at EPRI Meeting
PALM COAST, FLORIDA – Nuclear power industry managers and engineers attending the EPRI Buried Pipe Integrity Group (BPIG) Meeting and Vendor Expo on February 17 - 19 will have the opportunity to examine an innovative Inspector-series underwater robot, similar to the one that recently completed a successful floor plate survey of an in-service condensate storage tank at the Palo Verde Nuclear Generating Station in Arizona. The robot will be displayed at the IHI Southwest Technologies, Inc. booth, number 08.
The Inspector-series robot, designed and manufactured by Newton Labs, was developed to enable nuclear plant owners to meet the storage tank segment of their BPIG objectives of ensuring the structural integrity and operability of their buried piping and water storage tanks as required by NEI 09-14. The semi-autonomous Inspector robot is able to survey over 90 percent of a tank floor with a specialized NDE sensor package consisting of phased array ultra-sound, eddy current, laser scanning, and high resolution cameras. The position of revealed indications are precisely mapped and recorded, enabling the robot to return to the location of every mapped defect to within +/- 1/8th inch accuracy, whether during the initial inspection or years later.
Comprehensive, in-service tank surveys with Inspector-series robots are available to nuclear plant owners exclusively through IHI Southwest Technologies, Inc., a leader in nuclear industry nondestructive testing services.
About IHI Southwest Technologies, Inc.
San Antonio based IHI Southwest Technologies, Inc. is a wholly owned subsidiary
of IHI Corporation of Japan. IHI was formed in June 1999 as a spin-off from the
NDE Services Department of Southwest Research Institute IHI’s staff consists
of qualified and experienced engineering and examination personnel. All of IHI’s
examiners are trained, qualified, and certified in the appropriate methods and
on the applicable equipment in accordance with IHI procedures and client specific
guidelines. IHI maintains a full-time staff of NDE examiners, which allows us
to maintain the level of quality and productivity vital to the success and cost-effectiveness
of our programs at plants around the world.
About Newton Labs
Seattle based Newton Labs is a privately held manufacturer of machine vision, laser scanning,
robotics, and optical automation with significant nuclear experience. Newton's
products are designed to allow the quality, efficiency and cost effectiveness
of computer technology to replace the human element in virtually every industry.
Newton Labs has deployed more than 30,000 machine vision, laser scanning, robotic, and automation
systems worldwide.