From time to time on this blog, I like to take a break from the usual fab shop photo galleries and news link dumps to give out some information on a new or popular product or service we're offering. This one's good too: an overhaul of our inspection and re-certification asset management system, an update that carries a lot of great benefits for customers, and hopefully that means you.
First, just because we probably don't talk about it as much as some other things on here, let's run down what, exactly, our inspection and re-certification services include.
So, like, that's a lot.
Most of that is totally new to this blog, although we did a post on iron restraints a while ago. Restraints are, of course, the fun things where you can go down a YouTube rabbit hole watching people mutilate watermelons in the name of showing you how important the product is. Here's one of them, because we have to.
The serious point in there, of course, is that a bunch of iron and stuff flying around propelled by high pressures is really dangerous. So you're going to want to restrain it, great. Problem is, there are a ton of different types of restraints, and they're all used slightly differently depending on what you're using and the pressure you're dealing with... naturally, you're going to want to speak with someone who knows about these things. Oh, and hey, that's us. Well, not so much me, but other people here, I promise.
If you don't feel like scrolling through an embedded PDF (and why not, I spent a lot of time on that), here's the rest of it.
Iron Inspection and Re-Certification. There's way too much involved here to hit with a paragraph in a blog post, even a long one like this, so you should probably just go back to the PDF (or better yet, contact us). But the quick summary is that we offer all sorts of non-destructive testing, including ultrasonic thickness testing, hydrostatic pressure testing (which checks for leaks), magnetic particle testing (for cracks, rounding, and other flaws), and plain old-fashioned visual inspection.
We'll also take care of all of the annoying documentation formalities - serial numbers, piece names, manufacturers - and things like painting and banding. It's as thorough of a treatment as you can possibly get for your flow iron.
Drill Pipe Inspection. While there are different services applied to Category 3, Category 4, and Category 5 pipe, the common denominators are surface cleaning, electromagnetic inspection, ensuring that all documentation is done on things like joint number, tong space, and wall thickness, and making sure all identification markings are clear and proper.
Tool Inspection. We cover both steel and non-mag tools, with the treatment obviously depending on the nature of the tool. Steel tools receive black light inspections, non-mag tools receive liquid penetrant inspection. Both, of course, receive extensive documentation of measurements and serial numbers.
Hey look, some iron being tested.
Hey look, some iron being documented. There's a lot of that, after all I used the word three times above.
Sorry if you've seen those photos before, I use them on literally everything.
Anyway, the "tools, drillpipe and hosing" thing is worth a second mention because I don't know that we (well, I, that one is on me) do a great job letting you know that we're good at downhole stuff too, including fishing and blowout prevention, along with our well-known surface specialties like building trucks.
Traditionally, there's really only been two major drawbacks to the process, I suppose beyond the fact that the process itself is necessary for regulatory compliance purposes: downtime and, yes, documentation. There are a lot of numbers and results that get thrown around, and those have to be filed and available on request to prove that you're not using janky, dangerous equipment if something unfortunately does go wrong. And, of course, you can't exactly test something and use it at the same time. Fair enough.
But we can help with both of those things.
We recently (as in this month) upgraded our testing and certification asset management to the Infochip system. In addition to all of the cool, new stuff on our end, the upshot for you is that you're now able to log in from anywhere, including on your mobile device, tablet, or laptop, and pull any information you need, whether you're in the field or just throwing down Doritos and watching Netflix at 2 in the morning (hey, we're not judging). Nice, right?
Hopefully I don't need to spell it out, but for you, that means efficiency and reduced downtime, and that means money, and that is pretty heavily valued by you big boys out there like Antero and EQT. And pretty much everyone else in the world, I suppose. What's more, we can even track due dates for the next round of inspections, which obviously helps with your planning efforts.
So with all of that in mind, we hope you'll consider us for your inspection and re-certification needs going forward. We were already the best, and now we're also the most convenient.
