Inspecting a Recovery Boiler with the Elios Indoor Drone: Reaching Places That Were Once Impossible
Valmet, a leading provider of industrial technologies and services for the pulp, paper, and energy sectors, used Flyability’s Elios drone to inspect a recovery boiler. This innovative approach saved time, reduced costs, and provided access to areas that were previously difficult or even impossible to reach manually.
Key Benefits at a Glance
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High-Quality Data The Elios captured detailed visual data from hard-to-reach areas, helping identify specific burners and openings that required closer inspection or maintenance. |
ROI Valmet saved $20,000 by avoiding the need to build a scaffold for the inspection. |
Access The Elios allowed inspectors to get close to burners, tubes, and other critical components that are typically hard to reach using traditional methods. |
Overview
Valmet is one of the world's top providers of industrial technology and services for the pulp, paper, and energy industries. They supply large, complex equipment such as boilers, tanks, and digesters, and also offer ongoing maintenance and support. Regular inspections are a crucial part of their service, helping to detect potential issues before they impact plant performance or reliability.
Traditional inspections can be costly and time-consuming, often requiring the construction of scaffolding to allow inspectors to access every part of the equipment. During these periods, the equipment must be shut down, which can cost up to a million dollars per day for a single boiler. This makes efficiency in the inspection process essential.
Customer Needs
As part of its annual maintenance routine, Valmet constantly seeks ways to improve the efficiency of its inspection processes. When exploring new methods for inspecting boilers and tanks, the company decided to test the Elios drone. Its unique design—featuring a collapsible cage that allows it to safely collide with objects and continue flying—made it an ideal candidate for use in tight, hard-to-reach spaces.
In Mörrum, Sweden, Valmet’s team needed to conduct a scheduled inspection of a recovery boiler. The structure stood 60 meters tall, with walls made of pipes filled with circulating water, creating a cooled environment. Black liquor was fed into the furnace through nozzles and burned at high temperatures.
Shutting down the boiler for inspection costs up to $1 million per day, making every minute of downtime critical. To minimize this, staff worked in back-to-back shifts, starting at night and handing off work to a new team in the morning until the task was complete.
Building a scaffold to allow full access to all parts of the boiler was not only time-consuming but also expensive—taking two to three days and costing around $20,000 per inspection. With so many small elements and tight spaces, navigating the structure was extremely challenging.
Solution
The Elios drone was used to inspect the boiler, allowing Valmet’s team to conduct the inspection without the need for scaffolding. This meant they could start immediately, saving both time and money.
Using the Elios, inspectors were able to fly into tight spaces at the top and bottom of the boiler, capturing high-quality images and video footage. This eliminated the need for manual crawling or climbing, reducing risk and improving efficiency.
Results
The inspection was a huge success, with inspectors impressed by the quality of the images captured by the Elios. The drone flew inside the boiler for two hours, collecting video footage of every burner, pipe, and surface area. The data was then processed to extract valuable insights, which were included in the final inspection report.
During the night shift, Valmet’s team worked closely with Flyability to develop and follow an inspection plan. The report provided to the morning shift helped identify specific areas that needed further attention, enabling faster and more targeted repairs.
Conclusion
Valmet is already considering other applications for the Elios drone beyond recovery boilers. Some of the potential uses include:
- Inspecting the top of recovery boilers where deposits can accumulate, making manual entry dangerous. The Elios could help assess conditions before any human enters.
- Checking circulating fluidized bed power boilers with cyclones, which are hard to access manually. The drone could reduce the need for physical inspections in these areas.
- Examining ash hoppers, which are hazardous environments for manual checks. Using the Elios could eliminate the need for people to climb into the hopper.
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