Strategically located in Houston, the new failure lab of DNV GL expands the company’s global network of laboratories and test facilities

Strategically located in Houston, the new failure lab of DNV GL expands the company’s global network of laboratories and test facilities

(PRESS RELEASE) HOUSTON, Texas, United States, 28-Feb-2019 — /EuropaWire/ — New DNV GL failure analysis facility will open in Houston, Texas with the aim to prevent and learn from failures and continue to improve safety, reliability and up-time. The new center support the industry in conducting effective and efficient root cause analyses. The new center will complement the company’s testing facilities in in Columbus, OH.

The new facility will have an office space and a large warehouse to support receiving, inspecting, and storing large pipe sections and other failed components.

Visual inspection, non-destructive testing [NDT], disassembly and cutting of components will be among the crucial initial steps of a failure investigation the facility in Houston will carry out.

The new DNV GL Houston facility will be connected with the company’s team of experts in Columbus, OH who are able to carry out further analyses. Among others, those further analyses may include metallography, fractography (scanning electron microscopy), mechanical testing and chemical analysis. The team will rely on the experience drawn from and will as well have access to data from 1,000 failure analyses carried out in DNV GL’s network of failure labs around the world. DNV GL has failure investigation centers in the US, Norway, Singapore, The Netherlands and the UK.

The location of the new lab has been chosen to ensure proximity to DNV GL customers as well as the vast offshore and onshore pipeline infrastructure located in Texas, Oklahoma, and Louisiana.

DNV GL is experienced in examining failures of a wide range of components from offshore/onshore pipelines, offshore structure and subsea equipment, machinery, compressors, wind turbines, among others.

David Norfleet, Head of Section, Incident Investigation, DNV GL – Oil & Gas:

“Each year the Incident Investigation Section in DNV GL’s Columbus laboratory performs approximately 150 failure investigations for various industries, with the bulk coming from onshore pipeline infrastructure. The results of the investigations provide key insights for the proactive management of pipeline integrity so that similar incidents do not occur. Our new facility will enhance this and provides further facilities for our customers and extends DNV GL’s global laboratory network.”

Frank Ketelaars, Regional Manager, Americas DNV GL – Oil & Gas: 

“There is much to be gained from operators performing failure investigations and root cause analyses; It will provide better insights on why equipment has failed and how failures can be prevented in the future, enhancing safety, reliability and saving costs. Opening the new facility in the Houston area will allow us to provide improved local customer access, so they can be more closely involved in the whole investigation process.”

More information about about DNV GL’s global network of laboratories and test facilities can be found over here:

dnvgl.com/oilgas/laboratories-test-sites/index.html

SOURCE: DNV GL