How to Protect Your Sewage Pipes with a Multi-Sensor Inspection

If you walk on city streets each day, there’s a good chance that you’re strolling over miles of underground sewer pipeline.

These wastewater pipes are crucial infrastructure for communities and cities worldwide. That said, they also pose distinct maintenance and repair challenges due to their location.

In order to overcome those challenges, you need a comprehensive view of your underground assets. That’s where a multi sensor inspection (MSI) comes into play.

An MSI provides the vital information needed to maintain and improve sewer infrastructure by using a variety of sensor technologies to gather detailed infrastructure assessment data. Asset managers then use that information to make critical infrastructure decisions.

So, how could a multi-sensor inspection improve your asset management processes? We’ve laid out the top reasons why MSI should be your first choice when assessing your infrastructure.

Let’s break it all down.

Complete and detailed, quantitative multi-sensor pipe inspection data

If you’re reading this article, you’re likely familiar with traditional Closed circuit television inspection (CCTV) data collection.

While it’s effective, CCTV does have its limitations. For starters, it only provides the view of the pipe’s internal surface above waterline. Additionally, it does not provide any structural data on the integrity of pipe wall.

In comparison to traditional, visual-only CCTV methods, MSI offers quantitative data gathered using multiple sensor technologies including CCTV, Laser, and Sonar, as well as more advanced sensor options, like gas, temperature, and IMU’s (positioning).

RedZone’s MSI methods, in particular, offer a variety of sensor choices along with standard and premium deliverable options. Standard reports include inspection videos, corrosion and ovality data, pipe cross sections, and debris depths and volumes. Premium reports can also include 3D models, virtual mandrels with bend radius and time-based analysis.

Related Article: Sensor Technology: 2D and 3D LiDAR

By acquiring more advanced data, the premium options offer deeper insights into the overall condition of your pipes.

Establish a baseline condition report

How much do you really know about your pipes?

MSI allows you to establish a baseline condition report that will inform your planning process and budget for years to come. Essentially, that report provides you with a snapshot of each pipe’s physical condition, detailing the level of corrosion.

By having the most robust and complete data available, you can compare subsequent inspections to past data to establish wear and tear over time. That allows you to prioritize repairs and maintenance that need immediate attention.

Related Article: 5 Reasons to Perform a Baseline Inspection

It also helps you to create more effective cleaning schedules by emphasizing problem areas before you clean. That leads us to the next reason: ROI.

The best value for your money

MSI offers the best return on your infrastructure investment.

With the clearest, most concise data available, you receive actionable intelligence that allows you to make critical decisions regarding your system. In addition, if you perform an MSI prior to cleaning, you’ll obtain highly accurate debris volumes, which reduces both cleaning and opportunity costs (labor) overall.

A win-win situation for your total budget.

Overall, the cost of a traditional CCTV inspection is comparable to MSI when looking at the complete inspection picture. However, with RedZone’s inspect-to-clean methods, the money saved by inspecting 75% (on average) of a system during the initial inspection phase, without cleaning, makes the slightly higher MSI deployment cost well worth the investment.

It also supplies more complete data that can then be used to plan both repairs and maintenance. Holistically viewing the inspection process and cost, rather than segmenting each phase, provides better data at a lower overall cost.

Traditionally, infrastructure assessment providers clean and then inspect systems (known as clean-to-inspect), but RedZone’s multi-sensor technologies allow for approximately 75% of a system to be inspected before cleaning. Not only does this speed up timelines, but it also leaves funding for additional repairs and maintenance, as well as a second round of inspection once the repair and maintenance have been complete.

Take that money you save and put it toward other needs.

Bringing it all together

When you need to be absolutely sure about the condition of your underground sewer infrastructure in order to make sound decisions, get a multi sensor inspection.

This proactive approach provides information that you just can’t obtain with traditional methods, which will inevitably save you time and resources while also providing peace of mind.

At RedZone Robotics, we customize multi-sensor inspections for departments such as yours all around the world. Not only do we conduct the inspections, we provide you with data necessary to make those important underground infrastructure decisions. We’ll also manage that data within a secure, cloud-based software platform.

And, hey, we actually build the inspection robots in house!

To get started with your MSI solution, just complete the form below to schedule either a demo or inspection today.