Visual inspection of new welds in pipes is critical for pharmaceutical manufacturers
Regional standards, such as the 2016 edition of the SOCIETY of Mechanical Engineers Bioprocessing Equipment Standards, govern the construction and certification of bioprocessing and pharmaceutical equipment. These standards provide strict guidelines for the initial endoscopic inspection of new welds, including a log of results checks for each weld. This assessment typically uses endoscopic inspection (RVI) tools, such as borescopes or endoscopes.
Pharmaceutical plants also need to develop regular cleaning and maintenance programs that comply with Good Manufacturing Practices. An important part of plant maintenance includes regular endoscopic inspection of in-service welds, elbows, and joints in process pipes. These sites are typical problem points for residue build-up and line contamination. Again, borescopes or videocopes are the tools of choice to detect these hard-to-reach targets.
In-service weld inspection programs include careful documentation to monitor the hygiene and integrity of the equipment. These are also suitable for other pharmaceutical production equipment (tanks, containers, mixers, etc.). All processing equipment needs to be rigorously inspected, validated and documented on a regular basis.
Simplify the process of recording weld inspections for bioprocessing equipment
Fortunately, there are software tools that can help simplify stringent pharmaceutical plant test documentation requirements. Usually, before you start a borescope inspection, you need to refer to an isometric diagram to plan the inspection based on the equipment design and target location.
Because you may need to inspect many locations, and in some cases hundreds or even thousands of welds, managing RVI image archiving and generating inspection reports can be a complex task.
Standard endoscopic inspection workflow: tedious and time-consuming
When shooting inspection images with standard borescopes, text can often be added directly to the image. When using the 2016 edition of the SOCIETY of Mechanical Engineers Bioprocessing Equipment Standard, the WEL-1 Weld and Inspection/Inspection Log, inspectors assign a location and weld number to each weld they inspect. Therefore, embedding a position and weld number in the image allows the inspector to associate the image with a specific weld in the weld inspection log.
Pharmaceutical plants need to record these weld inspection images as part of the evidence data and need to generate reports. If you want to call and view images later, you may waste a lot of time going through many image files and opening each one to find the one you want. And the preparation of the report is also tedious because you have to copy each image manually and paste it into the file.
A simple trick to make image management easier during inspection
With the IPLEX image folder management feature, you can create an image folder for each location and weld number before you start inspection. When you capture a still image, the image file is automatically named, including the folder name and the 5-digit serial number, such as "location_weld#_00001.jpg".
The video file name is also generated using this logic. Because the file name includes the location and weld number, you can easily determine the object of inspection without opening the file. This improved visibility allows you to manage documents and prepare reports more smoothly.
When taking images, you can use the file marking function of the IPLEX video endoscope to accept, reject, or review the weld. You can preset up to 5 severity levels, for example:
A for acceptance
B stands for Minor Review
C stands for Major Review
D stands for Reject
The X stands for New or Normal
This diagnostic data is saved with the file and displayed with the image in the InHelp viewer library for easy post-inspection review. The InHelp Viewer is a PC companion software for IPLEX video endoscopes.
Accept/reject diagnostics attached to the weld inspection image file
When you want to inspect a new weld, you can easily switch to the next position/weld folder using the arrow on the joystick or touchscreen.
Increase your efficiency with advanced automated report generation
The InHelp viewer allows you to generate reports quickly and efficiently, by simply clicking on the images you want to include in the report, avoiding the time-consuming copy and paste process. When reviewing images, you can also update diagnostic results and add and edit comments. If you have selected relevant images and you are satisfied with the diagnostic data, you can simply select one of the saved templates to generate a complete report.
Pro Tip #1:
When using the file tagging feature of the IPLEX video endoscope, you can also add diagnostic attributes (A, B, C, or D) to the end of the image file name. This gives you an idea of the severity of the weld at a glance. When you review an image in the InHelp viewer library, you can choose to sort and display the image by A, B, C, and D attributes, respectively. This helps speed up detection review and report image selection.
Pro Tip #2:
Additionally improve the efficiency of the reporting process. When the same production device is regularly inspected, the InHelp viewer software can be configured to attach previous images and linked video clips and automatically generate reports.