In Boilers pressure parts like Drums, Super heater tubes, Steam pipes, Headers etc are operating in creep range are designed for certain minimum life time. As a unit age critical components may distress through mechanisms such as oxidation, corrosion, creep, thermal fatigue & interaction of the above mechanisms. These components deteriorates continuously during the service so as a result of the above time dependant material degradation process.

In actual practice, material damage results from interaction of two or more of these mechanisms, causing unanticipated failures. Some time such a failure may be catastrophic resulting in huge loss. Therefore, Remnant Life Assessment Study is important to maintain conditions of critical components & the remaining life before replacement or major repair are the main consideration in extending life of components. These components originally designed for base load for operation on cycling duty, require improvement to equipments & controls. Additionally modifications to operating philosophy is also to be covered in life assessment program. Thus the useful life of the components in service may well exceed or fall significantly short of the design life. The reason of such behavior are related to design operational & metallurgical conditions considerable reserve strength & longevity even at the end of the predicted design life.

The component may be prematurely fail due to unforeseen systems, stress concentrations & operating under hot originally envisaged in design life cyclic operation, excessive temp, corrosion & erosion environment. Local conditions & operational factors associated with the particular unit dictate the type & extend of damage in components.

The Remnant Life Assessment (RLA) Study as per Indian Boiler Act 1950 is most essential & most useful in boilers of Thermal Power Plant, Sugar Factories & Refineries to control over proper Boiler Operation for safe & economy. For conducting RLA Studies, the methods & techniques should be selected carefully. Identification of failure prone areas & their treatment is very essential for preventing accidents & unwanted breakdowns, which becomes harmful to human being & productivity.

Generally RLA are conducted for aircraft components, Power Plant components, Boilers & several other machineries which are working under stress, thermal creep & fatigue, cyclic & loads. The equipments which needs RLA study are Boilers, Piping, Pressure Vessels, Storage Tanks, Pumps, Turbines, Compressors etc.

Significance of RLA Studies:

It is necessary to keep equipments in efficiently operating condition and maximize the life of that equipment. There are different types of components in equipment which require a routine inspection to check their proper working condition. By carrying out inspection, all the information related to the degradation which can affect the service life of that equipment is obtained which will help to provide an early warning to take appropriate actions before facing the failure. After the whole study and past experiences, suitable methodologies can be incorporated to avoid such issues in future which may cause expensive downtime problem.

Conducting RLA Studies:

Before planning to conduct RLA studies, several information regarding the history of a component, its service time period, etc. needs to be collected. Previously, the method that was practiced for RLA studies of expensive equipments was the Visual Inspection but very soon it made a realization that a scientific approach was required for the Residual Life assessment. Besides the other techniques, Non-Destructive Testing techniques are also employed for RLA studies of Pressure vessels. Electrical Tests like ELCID, Ten Delta, RSO, IR, PI etc. are performed on generator and transformer for condition assessment. After all the studies, a correlation between the operational parameters and the results obtained from NDT is drawn which is used to estimate the Residual Life of a particular equipment. Kanwade Multi Tech Pvt. Ltd. carries out the determination of in-service degradation of crucial components which works under harsh temperature, pressure & cyclic stresses leading to creep, fatigue & corrosion problems. The specially designed software which enables real-time monitoring of the test components is implemented. We are well-adapted to conduct Condition Assessment & RLA studies and have gained professionalism in this field.

Kanwade Multi Tech Pvt. Ltd. is accredited by Central Boilers Board and we are a certified Remnant Life Assessment Organization and also a well known Material Testing Laboratory. We provide In-Service Inspection for RLA Studies of for ensuring Safety and Integrity of equipments of the Thermal Power Plants, Hydro Power Plants, Petroleum Refineries, etc. to maintain the operating capacity for a longer period of time.

As per Indian Boiler Regulation 1950, the critical components which may get subjected to high temperature and pressure needs examination through Non Destructive Testing (NDT) timely as per the regulations. We own a team of well-specialized experts who are deeply involved in carrying out RLA Studies to ensure better operations.