Murata electronics plant had an incident where a water pipe had leaked in the Process area. The owner took a proactive approach to investigate the condition of piping and had requested TKS to conduct necessary investigation and audit to check integrity of the system. PowerQ was called upon to assist TKS to inspect the length of hundreds of meters in serveral building in sites.
Piping Facility
The objective of the work was to:
General visual inspection of existing hot and cold service water piping to locate any abnormalities such as leaks cracks, pits, and general wall thinning without removing the piping from service.
Review condition of supports and hangers for hot and cold service water piping
Perform thickness tests at at about 50 locations.
Identify any anomalies
The following tasks were carried out:
- Briefing Meeting and Discussion
- Brief Review of specification and construction drawing to identify and establish routing
- Site verification
An on-site inspection of all the piping services equipment at Plant and production area was carried out. Where applicable we refer to relevant codes such as ANSI/API570 (Piping Inspection Code: Inspection, Repair, Alteration, and Rerating of In-Service Piping Systems) for inspecting the piping
- 100% visual check at practically accessible areas to locate any abnormalities such as leaks cracks, pits, and abnormal condition of support & hangers without removing the piping from service.
- Visual inspection of the cut out piping where leakage occurred as also carried out and separate condition testing was performed in Japan by Taikisha. Visual inspection shows no internal deposit or pitting of copper pipe.
- Random Thickness test was carried out by Certified NDT professional at the location identified by PowerQ inspection team. This measuring system is employed to inspect the pipelines Corrosion reduces wall thickness and may eventually lead to cracking with potentially disastrous consequences.
- Visual pipe line inspection was be aided by magnifying glass, measuring tape, veneer calliper, mirror, high beam torch light and a digital camera. Identification shall be given to tested locations and will be also referred on relevant drawing.
Finding and Recommendations
Some anomalies related to installation and mechanical damage to piping as are identified. There were spot of water mark on ceiling board found which is probably due to condensation water droppings. There were no leakages found on copper piping.
The thickness testing should be viewed as first step to determine general condition water piping. It is found that there is no appreciable loss of wall thickness the copper pipe are not internal corroded.