Leak testing
It is essential to guarantee the safety of petrochemical plants, checking and intervening on the performance of the process and the pipelines: leak tests with nitrogen and helium offered by SOL have as their primary objective the search for leaks which, in addition to increasing the environmental impact of the plant, reduce production efficiency; tracing and effectively and quickly eliminating any leaks makes it possible to manage production in greater safety, in particular in the transport of liquid or gaseous products, above all if they are toxic, dangerous or inflammable. In addition the advancing age of plants and pipelines, together with their complexity, imposes increasingly stringent and rigourous security standards: leak testing with mixtures of nitrogen and helium performance much better than classic systems in finding large and small leaks, and above all it can evaluate their size. After careful analysis of the data the best corrective and preventive action can be taken in safety.
Leak testing is normally carried out after maintenance and before any drying operations; it is done by slightly pressurising the plant to be tested for leaks with a mixture of SOL gases, nitrogen and a small percentage of helium. Helium is easy for very sensitive analysers to detect, these are placed near to joints, welds, valves or other components that could potentially leak the fluid. The SOL technical and technological service, in collaboration with the customer, evaluates the seriousness of the leak to give the client the information he needs to decide on any action to be taken.