Technical decisions in asset integrity, inspection, welding, and reliability often depend on understanding damage mechanisms, inspection limitations, regulatory expectations, and practical field constraints. TES Canada shares practical engineering insights and technical notes designed to help asset owners and technical teams understand key issues before selecting an inspection, assessment, or repair strategy.
Insights may draw from TES Canada project experience, team expertise, industry standards, and practical engineering lessons. They are intended as educational technical notes for integrity managers, inspection engineers, plant engineers, reliability teams, welding quality managers, and pipeline integrity specialists.
Corrosion under insulation is not simply a coating or insulation problem. It is an asset integrity management issue that requires a structured, risk-based progr…
Read Insight →Risk-Based Inspection provides a structured engineering framework for prioritizing inspection activities based on risk — not simply extending intervals, but ins…
Read Insight →Corrosion under insulation is not simply a coating or insulation problem. It is an asset integrity management issue that…
Risk-Based Inspection provides a structured engineering framework for prioritizing inspection activities based on risk —…
Advanced NDT can significantly improve the efficiency of CUI assessment, but only when the selected technique is matched…
Long-Range Ultrasonic Testing (LRUT) supports pipeline integrity programs by screening road crossings, sleeved pipelines…
Inspection findings such as corrosion, wall loss, dents, cracking, and weld defects do not automatically mean equipment …
Inspection detects and characterizes flaws. Engineering Critical Assessment determines whether those flaws are acceptabl…
In-service welding is not simply "welding while operating." It is a controlled engineering activity requiring assessment…
PSV inspection intervals should be based on a defensible understanding of risk, service severity, reliability, consequen…
CUI inspection produces information, but integrity management requires structured engineering data. A defensible CUI pro…
Unpiggable pipelines are not unmanageable pipelines. The key is to move from a single-method inspection mindset to a PIM…
Inspection data identifies conditions. PIMS turns those conditions into traceable engineering decisions. ILI, direct ass…
In RBI, probability of failure is not only a function of degradation rate. Inspection effectiveness, coverage, technique…
RBI accuracy improves when degradation mechanisms are defined at the level that actually controls risk. Broad labels suc…
Corrosion rate is not always a single number. When data scatter is high or localized corrosion is credible, treating cor…
RBI is only defensible if the operating assumptions behind the risk model remain valid. IOWs provide the operational con…
CUI starts with a corrosion environment under insulation. If water ingress and moisture retention are not controlled, in…
Temperature bands help screen for CUI susceptibility, but thermal cycling — with its repeated wet-dry cycles and chlorid…
Temperature bands help identify susceptible systems, but CUI inspection locations should be selected based on where wate…
Pressure equipment repairs need more than a completed work package. Traceable engineering rationale, code references, in…
A code-based PWHT exemption may satisfy a construction or repair rule under defined conditions, but it does not automati…
Good circuitization turns piping inspection from scattered spot checks into a structured engineering program. A credible…
Slug flow and multiphase flow can create localized erosion-corrosion zones that average corrosion rates and sparse CMLs …
Thickness measurement is a powerful inspection tool, but it is not a universal integrity assessment method. The right in…
Residual stress assumptions can strongly influence engineering critical assessment outcomes for crack-like flaws. Conser…
ECA does not assess the flaw that is hoped to exist — it assesses the flaw model defined by inspection data and engineer…
Crack-like flaws do not behave like corrosion thinning. They may fail by fracture, fatigue crack growth, or brittle frac…
Level 1 FFS is a screening tool, not a universal final answer. When damage geometry, loading, material behaviour, flaw i…
The first question in FFS should not be "how much wall thickness remains?" The first question should be "what failure mo…
In-service welding is not safe simply because burn-through calculations pass. A defensible in-service welding program mu…
Averaged corrosion rates can create false confidence when damage is localized. Injection points, mixing zones, turbulenc…
Residual stress assumptions can dominate ECA results. An over-conservative assumption may be appropriate when uncertaint…
Level 1 fitness-for-service screening can be limited when local nozzle stresses or complex geometries influence the dama…
Chloride stress corrosion cracking under insulation can remain hidden until cracking becomes operationally significant. …
Delayed HAZ cracking after in-service welding is often linked to hydrogen, restraint, hardness, and cooling conditions. …
