Rosen was founded more than 25 years ago in Germany by Hermann Rosen. Mr Yoxall says that during this period, Rosen has grown and moved closer to the customer. Over the ten years that Rosen has been operating in Australia, the company has assisted in the inspection of many major transmission lines and in excess of 30,000 km of pipeline.

Mr Yoxall says “Interestingly a number of these lines have been re-inspected by Rosen in recent times, and in many of these cases the same Rosen employees were involved. This highlights the consistency of Rosen in Australia over the past ten years. Continuity is a key part of our success planning.”

Rosen is a privately owned company, which means that it can maintain its flexibility in an increasingly competitive industry. Capital can be reinvested back into research and development projects such as those mentioned below. In addition, with few decision makers, the choice to move forward to meet a market demand can be made instantaneously.

New technologies

Since The Australian Pipeliner last caught up with Mr Yoxall, Rosen has seen a number of extremely exciting technological improvements and developments including;

• integrated primary and secondary sensors into one carrier;
• enhanced active speed control;
• small 3 inch diameter tools;
• short ‘mini’ tools;
• high temperature and pressure capabilities;
• high velocity and heavy wall tools;
• combination tools;
• high resolution geometry pigs;
• multi-diameter;
• bi-directional inspection; and,
• shallow internal corrosion sensors.

“From an In-Line Inspection industry perspective, the average lag between the technologies first being commercially released overseas, to the first commercial run in Australia would be around two years. In terms of utilising these technologies, the Australian industry, are well respected as leaders in our fields,” says Mr Yoxall.

Mr Yoxall says “The combination tools are a real step forward in intelligent inspection advantages. For any number of reasons including infrequent production (loading lines), long run times either through low flow or long length pipelines, limited personnel or time in the field, the combination of inspection technologies, for example metal loss detection, geometry and gyro, also known as XYZ, allow for full data capture of the various features one may find in a pipeline in a single pass as opposed to sometimes three individual runs.

“The multi-diameter tools have also proven themselves when confronted with a physically challenging pipeline. Either through an unwanted restriction in the pipeline such as a dent or a pipeline that has been designed with dual or multi-diameters, these tools can be utilised so that not only is passage assured, but all sections of a pipeline are inspected to full specification,” he says.

All of the mentioned technologies, with the exception of the bi-directional metal loss tool, have been successfully run in Australia. Mr Yoxall says that in some cases, it has been the first time for the Southern Hemisphere.

“This is evidence that many of the pipeline operators in Australia are willing to obtain as much information as is technically feasible, while at the same time placing faith in Rosen’s capability in designing, manufacturing and running these new developments. To those operators, we thank them for the opportunity.”

Diversifying inspection

There are many other services that Rosen can provide to owners and/or operators of plant and facilities other than the inspection of buried pipelines. These include robotic pipe scanners for above ground pipelines; automated coiled tubing inspection; tank bottom inspection units; and, asset integrity management services amongst others.

“We are also involved in the non destructive testing of sea going vessels and more recently played a major part in a rehabilitation project,” says Mr Yoxall.

In addition, Rosen manufactures its own polyurethane, having recently set up its own polyurethane manufacturing facility in Lingen, known as ‘RoPlast’. This facility is not only responsible for the production of the cups and discs for Rosen’s cleaning and intelligent pigs, but will also see the development, manufacturing and marketing of other polyurethane products such as lubricant free gears, precision rollers, damping components, insulation plates and internal pipeline coatings.

Defining In-Line Inspection

Mr Yoxall says that the In-Line Inspection industry has certainly matured. He says that In-Line Inspection has become the preferred pipeline inspection method of choice the world over.

“With that maturity has also come a higher level of scrutiny, knowledge and understanding by end users and increasingly challenging inspection requirements. Not only are there tool capability guidelines, but more recently, competency and experience requirements for In-Line Inspection vendor personnel who work with the tools in field or evaluate and report on the data captured,” he says. (ASNT ILI-PQ-2005) (see article in The Australian Pipeliner April 2008, page 58 for further details).

The level of expectation as to what can be detected, identified and sized has also risen. Many operators in Australia have vast experience of In-Line Inspection.

“From an In-Line Inspection perspective, the need for increasingly robust and physically capable tools will almost certainly continue. The enquiries we see today for extremely heavy wall, high pressure, long length and multi-diameter inspection capabilities for future pipelines are indicative of what is to come,” explains Mr Yoxall.

This is primarily an ‘upstream’ driven requirement and associated with going into deeper waters.

From the ‘downstream’ sector, Rosen can expect to see earlier ‘baseline’ inspections. “For existing pipelines, as operating conditions change, the ranges at which tools can successfully operate will need to increase. There is an increasing market need for tools to operate in low pressure environments whilst still maintaining a constant velocity and this will become a necessity in the not too distant future. This will also drive robotic technologies for the unpiggable pipeline market,” Mr Yoxall says.

“What we are finding now is that some operators are looking to add value to their inspections. Rather than running the same technologies to satisfy periodic requirements, operators consider what alternatives or additional technologies are available that may allow for more, or a different type of information to be gathered to that which already exists,” says Mr Yoxall.

Mr Yoxall points to XYZ technology as becoming a fairly standard request, certainly on longer length pipelines and/or urban encroachment on pipelines.

Rosen Asia Pacific focus

The interaction with the In-Line Inspection vendor and the pipeline industry’s worldwide community is increasing.

In order to handle the increase, Rosen branches in Perth, Melbourne and Kuala Lumpur have combined their areas of responsibility to form Rosen Asia Pacific.

Mr Yoxall says “This will allow us to combine our talents and resources to make more efficient use of our personnel and tools in the region. It allows us to utilise the high level of skill and experience available to continuously improve the level of service again to the whole region, while also allowing for an exchange of experiences at an operator level.”