Petrochemical International

LixiScope

	FIGURE 1. To achieve portability, the Profiler inspection system uses a gadolinium-153 isotope mounted on one end of a U-shaped pedestal arm as an ionizing radiation source rather than using an electrically generated x-ray.

on the other end of the pedestal arm, the x-ray converter includes a scintillator, which is used with a microchannel-plate x-ray detector to produce electrons that are amplified by a factor of 1 million.The discriminator and level detector function as a gray-scale detector, selecting signal pulses based on amplitude to match the region of interest for the pipe material being inspected. The notebook computer calibrates and converts the pulses into data for image presentations on the computer screen as wall-thickness measurements.
FIGURE 2. Computer monitor shows the signal pulse readout of pipe-wall thicknesses in an oil refinery, as measured by the Profiler inspection system. Through proper calibration of the detected radiation, the Profiler provides, as an output, a double-wall thickness measurement of the pipe, which is used to locate changes along the pipe length to indicate the existence of a blockage or corrosion.