It’s well established that using the wrong grade of component is one of the leading causes of safety accidents and structural damage across large industrial plants. Accurate material analysis and regular on-site inspections go a long way towards improving safety, and the development of industrial PMI analyzers have made a real difference in the ease of fulfilling safety and preventative maintenance targets. Making sure your analysis kit is right for the job is paramount.
Many areas of industrial processing plants are hazardous and difficult to access, and you might only get one chance to take the measurement – so right first-time accuracy is essential.
We’ve put 45 years of experience of practical analysis into the development of a range of analyzers for PMI/NDT use across large-scale industrial processing plants. With a focus on robustness, ease of use and accuracy, you can take Hitachi PMI analyzers to every corner of your plant, including hard-to-reach test locations and welds.
Our analyzers are suitable for oil and gas plants, power plants and chemical processing facilities – and have a wide range of applications. The most common are:
Oil and gas upstream: Material verification of metal components on and offshore. Instant results of material grade and chemistry.
Oil and gas midstream: Pipeline safety verification with reliable, fast and comprehensive chemistry measurements.
Oil and gas downstream: Complete PMI for components before, during and at end-of-life, including weld integrity.
Power: Complete PMI for components that must meet ASME Section IX B&PV code standards and flow accelerated corrosion (FAC) analysis.
All plants: Verifying materials for weldability, providing a library of carbon equivalent and other formulas. High temperature testing capability for reduced downtime.
We have two main ranges of PMI analyzer for industrial safety analysis:
The X-MET8000 is a handheld XRF analyzer about the size and weight of a handheld drill. It’s easy to use with a full day’s battery life. It can be used for measuring a wide range of elements, it’s good for the analysis of light elements (Mg to S) for control of components and systems.
The technique is completely non-destructive and leaves no marks on the analyzed surface.
You can use it to measure surfaces of up to 400ºC, making it ideal for measuring components in use. You can choose the optional small-spot collimator, which focuses the analyzing beam down to 3mm – this is especially valuable when isolating specific features such as welds.
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The PMI-MASTER series uses optical emission spectroscopy (OES). This measurement technique is the only one that can reliably separate stainless steel L-grades and provide detailed enough composition information for carbon equivalent (CE) calculations. It’s also the only technology that can accurately measure the nitrogen content in duplex and austenitic stainless steels.
The PMI-MASTER Smart is a truly portable high-performance OES analyzer. It’s lightweight and compact and can be used with a rechargeable battery. The instrument also meets stringent PMI metallurgical alloy chemistry testing requirements, including API 5L, ASME section IX B&PV, ISO 17025 and A2LA standards.
The GRADE database is an extensive metals database for fast and easy grade identification. More than 12 million records for over 340,000 materials from 69 countries and standards are included, and the information is updated at national and international standards change. The GRADE database comes as standard in the PMI-MASTER Smart and as an optional upgrade for the X-MET8000.
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Which of Hitachi’s PMI range is best for your safety needs depends on your application. Get in touch and our industry experts will help you select the analyzer that will keep your production running and your facility safe.
Find out more about our range of NDT/PMI analyzers for the verification of pipelines.
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