Remote Asset-

Integrity Monitoring
Measuring Metal Loss with
Installed Ultrasonic Sensors & IoT

176-500 Technology Drive • Boalsburg, PA, 16827, USA

(814) 466-7207 • www.sensornetworksinc.com
offices in Houston, Hong Kong and Beijing
 Sensor Networks, Inc. is a US-based IoT technology
company specializing in networked installed ultrasonic sensor systems
Productivity advantage
engineered for precision, scalability and versatility in safety-critical,
energy-sector assets. Our unique, patent-pending product and service
offering helps customers cost-effectively manage their corrosion and
erosion measurement challenges with plant piping, vessels and other Ultrasonic nondestructive testing (NDT) is a
components—both for regulatory compliance and improved asset 70-year-old, proven, established and
management. Ultrasound refined technology. Recent advances with
microelectronics, software, wireless
communications and the “internet of things”
have made “installed ultrasound” an
extremely attractive and cost-effective
solution for corrosion & erosion monitoring.

Metal loss due to corrosion & erosion is a

major issue and cost for:

back wall
surface

defect
Safe. Non-invasive to the asset’s pressure boundary.
Absolute in its ability to directly measure remaining high-temp
Refineries: overhead crude lines and delay line transducer
wall thickness. (Not a proxy for wall loss.)
naphthenic acid corrosion
pit/
Extremely accurate to 0.001” (0.025 mm), with ability defect
Chemical plants: hydrofluoric acid corrosion
to measure down to 0.040” (1 mm) in carbon steel,
Oil production facilities: sand erosion especially for fixed-location probes.
Mid-stream assets: general ID corrosion and Rugged, reliable and portable. Low recurring dual-element pit/
Multiple cable-drops of transducer defect
individual pit monitoring installed sensors can be maintenance costs.
manually accessed above
Electric power generators: FAC and MIC Versatile and cost-effective.
grade with a tablet PC and
single-element
Any PSM-regulated sites: compliance and loss prevention dataPIMS™. transducer

material

For long-term installations,

including underground or
harsh environments, the
A fundamental tenet of transducer is encapsulated for
any asset-integrity Installed sensors are ideally extended protection.
strategy is to accurately suited for monitoring areas of
measure metal loss so it active metal loss due to
can be properly corrosion/erosion.
managed. Sensor smartPIMS components, software and systems acoustic velocity × ( transit time / 2 ) = thickness
Networks’ smartPIMS are highly configurable, from just a few sensors
provides that as a safe to thousands of TMLs per network—and
and cost-effect solution. available for purchase, rent or as a service.
Leveraging the low-cost and ubiquitous
aspects of the Internet and wireless Flexible matPIMS linear or area
arrays, with 16 ultrasonic elements
networks—including cellular—systems can be
can be wrapped around pipes and
more easily and cost-effectively installed and
“Measure It, maintained at most industrial facilities.
elbow extrados, with up to 1,000’
(305 m) of cable.

Manage It”
 Wired solutions Wireless solutions
Best suited for: Best suited for:
Buried installations
midstream Situations where wiring is cost
prohibitive or impractical
Integration with plant control
systems via Modbus/RS485 Fully-automated and
integrated data collection
Lowest hardware cost per TML/CML
Measurement intervals less
Manual, automated and integrated
than twice daily
data collection options
Periodic repositioning
High data-collection frequency
(>2X/day) incl. control room
Data-logging model can take &
store 3,000 readings. (batteries req’d)
Resistance to RF interference

Modbus tablet systems address

buried pipe and mobile assets (tanker
cars and trailers) that require accurate,
repeatable, infrequent measurements.
Cellular systems are battery powered, environmentally
sealed, self-contained, CI, D2 safety rated and 100%
autonomous. Programmed to turn-on at any desired
periodic time interval and powering up to 8 dual-element or
16 single-element probes, the smartPIMS device transmits all
data and measurements to the cloud/web portal. These units
transmit the data using secure HTTPS –SSL encryption protocols.

midstream downstream

upstream

Modbus control room systems are ideal for The matPIMS™ 3×5 transducer
offshore platforms when wired directly into the array is a 16-element device that
asset’s plant control system or DCS. The installed can wrap radially or axially on a SNI’s Pit-track™ hardware/software solution can Transducer model XD-201 is an ultra-high temp probe
pipe as small as 4” diameter. It monitor the growth of many individual pits with which can operate in 900° F (500°C) continuous-duty
sensors provide automatic closed-loop monitoring
plugs directly into a Modbus a high degree of thickness resolution. service. These probes and their temperature-measuring
of the production process. tablet with up to 1,000’ (305 m) RTDs are mechanically clamped onto the plant asset.
of cable for signal/data capture.
 Data Flow & Management with webPIMS ™ and dataPIMS ™

AWS-hosted webPIMS can automatically or manually receive data 6 tiers of user-defined

from ultrasonic sensors for web-based display, hierarchy are possible:
cloud-based data storage, trending and analysis. Users can access this
Company
management system data from anywhere with an internet-enabled device
such as a PC, tablet or smart phone. Site
for ultrasonic thickness Plant
An intuitive user’s interface allows easy access to
measurements from stored images or pdf drawings of the actual installed Asset
installed UT sensors. set-up. Temperature sensors at the TMLs record the Collection Point
asset’s temperature while software automatically (Instrument)
compensates for thermal changes. Probe/TML
dataPIMS™ software is used for system setup,
commissioning, calibration, data-logging, Digital images and/or piping
data-uploading and CSV file export. schematic drawings can be
archived at each tier.

The smartPIMS & webPIMS products store

the digitized RF waveform from every
thickness reading. Changes in wall
thickness, due to corrosion and/or
erosion, can be accurately trended while
metal-loss rates are precisely calculated
using statistical noise-reduction
algorithms. Per-TML alarms can be set for
either minimum thickness or a maximum
metal-loss rate.

webPIMS data Executive Summary view shows the GPS location

can be easily of your assets, the in-or-out-of-spec status and
accessed from an exportable tabular summary with time / date
any mobile stamp and temperature status. Ultrasonic test
device or data can be automatically uploaded to this cloud All thickness data is archived for easy future
smartphone. app via SNI’s cellular smartPIMS device, at any access and analysis. These files can be
periodic time interval or manually via the down-loaded from the web for further analysis
tablet-based Modbus system. or imported into other RBI software platforms.
Auto reporting via e-mail is easily set-up.
 transmitter type . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . cellular (3G/4G-LTE)

specifications

cellular
encryption type . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . SSL
model no. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . smartPIMS Cell
battery type . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Li D-cell, 3.6 VDC, qty. 2
battery life . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 years (typical, based on 1 reading/day)
ultrasonic system
channels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 ultrasonic, 1 temperature
pulser voltage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ±5V bipolar square wave
analog frequency . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1–10 MHz (-3dB)
gain . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . -10dB to +70dB
digitizer frequency . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40 Msps
certification . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Class 1, Div. 2
enclosure
type . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . instrumentation housing
material . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . aluminum
rating . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . NEMA 4X, IP66
temperature range . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . -4°F to + 140°F (-20°C to +60°C)
dimensions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.44” × 5.59” × 5.11” (138 ×140×130mm)
weight . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.2 lbs. (2.36 kg)

transmitter model no. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . smartPIMS Modbus and Modbus DL

Modbus

Modbus DL with batteries can collect and store 3,000 thickness readings.
protocol . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Modbus
communication . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . RS-485, 2-wire, max. 1000’ (305m)
power . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10-20 VDC
ultrasonic system and enclosure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [same as cellular model]

tablet performance processor . . . Intel i5-4200U 1.6GHz w/ 3MB L3 cache (dual-core)

datalogger memory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 GB RAM
storage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . M2-SATA SSD, 64 GB
operating system . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Windows 10
connections network power, data via RS-485-to-USB adapter
physical drop/shock resistance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . MIL-STD-810G
environmental . . . . . . . . . . . . . IP65, 14–131°F (-10 to +55 °C)
dimensions/weight . . . . . . . . . 11.4” × 7.48” × 0.78” / 2.73 lbs.

transducer type . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . co-ax, ¼” dia.

cable maximum length to transducer . . . . . . . standard 10’ (3.0m), custom to 50’ (15.2m)

transducers single-element dual-element delay-line

transducers

contact contact contact matPIMS

model XD-101 XD-301 XD-201 XD-401

application general purpose severe pitting ultra-high temp general wall loss
frequency 5 MHz 5 MHz 7 MHz 7.5 MHz
active area (dia.) 0.25”/6.35mm 0.375”/10mm 0.375”/10mm 0.25”/6.35mm
overall (dia. x h) 1.0 × 1.0” 0.75 × 0.75” 0.8 × 2.25” 1.0 × 9.12”
25.4 × 25.4 mm 19 × 19 mm 20.3 × 57.2 mm 25.4 × 231.6 mm
# of transducers 1–16 1–8 1–16 16 (1 reference,
15 active)
resolution 0.001”/0.025mm 0.001”/0.025mm 0.001”/0.025mm 0.001”/0.025mm
thickness range † 0.200–6.0” 0.040–6.0” 0.125–1.0” 0.125–6.0”
5.1–150.0mm 1.0–150.0mm 3.0–25.0mm 3.0–150.0mm
temp range -5 to +150 °F -5 to +300 °F -5 to +932 °F -5 to +150 °F
-20 to +80 °C -20 to +150 °C -20 to +500 °C -20 to +80 °C
225.74mm attachment magnet/adhesive magnet/adhesive mechanical clamp adhesive
8.89in
†minimum resolutions stated as typical values, but will vary with pipe condition
135.43mm
5.33in
103.19mm
4.06in

Sensor Networks® , smartPIMS®, webPIMS™, matPIMS™ , dataPIMS™ and Pit-Track™ are

143.33mm 129.86mm
5.64in 5.11in trademarks of Sensor Networks, Inc. ©2017. All rights reserved.