As well as the comprehensive testing facilities at Buckley’s site in North Wales, an on-site flexible hose assembly testing facility has been developed. The need for testing is well proven but geographical limitations have meant that only sites in the UK, Ireland and Northern Europe can be serviced from the Buckley UK testing facility.
This mobile facility will enable testing to take place anywhere in Europe.
The Mobile Test Unit has been successfully deployed in Northern Algeria but is more suited to being sited in southern Europe such as Italy or Spain where a number of sets of power station hose assemblies could be tested as outages occur, thereby saving substantially on transport costs. This facility is equipped with an equivalent level of testing hardware and software and provides test conditions and results which comply with today’s stringent standards.
The first stage of the test procedure is a visual inspection to detect any external damage.
The second stage is a hydrostatic pressure test at 1.5 x maximum working pressure. BI Datatrack, Buckley Industrial’s bespoke testing software, monitors and records the pressure at specified intervals during the test so that even the smallest of leaks, where there is no evidence of water escaping, can be detected.
After the pressure test, the assemblies are thoroughly dried using a system of air blowers.
Additionally each hose assembly is inspected internally using a videoscope. This serves two purposes, firstly to check that each assembly is completely dry inside and secondly to ensure there is no internal damage such as corrosion, foreign bodies or any other damage that could compromise its integrity. When the testing and inspection of each assembly is complete, the hose is capped immediately using high visibility full-face flange protectors to ensure no foreign bodies enter the hose prior to installation.
Finally the hose assemblies are packed in fold-away pallet boxes for safe transportation back to the customer.