【Haichuan’s Insights from Other Places】Shenmu Coal Chemical Industry Uses Drones for Inspections

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Recently, following the inspection command issued by Shenmu Coal Chemical Energy Company, the blades began to spin rapidly, and a drone took off slowly to carry out the inspection of the gas pipeline network autonomously, following a pre-set route. This drone replaces manual inspections, providing another valuable tool for the company’s safe production. 　　It is understood that drones perform point cloud scanning of the inspection area to create high-precision 3D models, which are then used to plan inspection routes accurately so as to ensure comprehensive coverage of all the pipelines to be inspected. The planned inspection routes are uploaded to the drone operation platform; to date, 11 such routes have been created and stored. By displaying the large screen, the staff can clearly see the drone conducting a comprehensive scan of the gas pipelines to collect evidence. At the same time, the laser methane detector mounted on the drone can follow the focusing direction of the high-definition camera to carry out continuous gas scanning and analysis, with the analysis data being transmitted in real time. Throughout the inspection process, employees do not need to perform any manual control; they only need to monitor the status of the drone and the video footage it transmits. On the platform’s operation interface, all the important flight parameters of the drone are clearly displayed, and its flight status is monitored in real time. In case of an emergency, staff can intervene at any time to take manual control. Furthermore, drones can conduct visual inspections of gas pipelines, analyze temperature anomalies, and detect the composition of gases; they perform intelligent calculations to determine whether there are leaks or damages in the pipelines, and finally generate inspection reports automatically. 　　“Since the introduction of drones, the originally complex and time-consuming inspection tasks have become much easier and more convenient. It turns out that a manual inspection of the entire gas pipeline network takes at least a day. Today, using drones for inspections along the entire route takes only 3 hours, and the process is safer and more efficient, with more accurate and comprehensive data. ”The company’s management said.