Pipeline Inspection

Inside the early eighties and speaking usually, the only internal pipeline inspection was either carried out by the sewer inspection organizations, who could be inspecting primarily dry sewer pipe（Underground Sewer Pipe） sections over short distances; typically not exceeding 150m and who would cease when the pipe became surcharged towards the point where the camera would turn out to be submerged along with the oil business help companies who would run 'intelligent pigs' even though the oil pipes to assess weld integrity, pipe wall thickness and situation to be able to assess pipeline longevity and safe operating pressure.

At this time the water organizations who were largely oblivious for the internal situation of their pipelines, adits, aqueducts and tunnels were starting to have concerns about the integrity of their assets, many of which had been constructed in the course of the Victorian era or much more lately inside the early fifties and had by no means been inspected and were unsuccessfully attempting to locate companies and/or gear that could carry out such surveys.

In some circumstances they had been capable to de-water the pipelines（Water Supply Pipes） and if massive adequate diameter, they would send a confined space group in to carry out a visual survey; such surveys were naturally fraught with prospective dangers, not least of which integrated the danger of collapse, flooding along with the accumulation of toxic gasses.

De-watering came with its own set of prospective risks towards the structural integrity in the concrete, tunnelled and brick constructed pipelines; in many instances, little leaks developed by displaced joints, erosion and localised harm and so forth. enabled the leaking water to seek out a path by means of the ground and over quite a few years, earth would be washed out from around the pipe, often resulting in large water filled voids forming about the outdoors on the pipeline.

The newly de-watered pipeline which would frequently be partially reliant around the head of water inside the pipeline (wanting to push the walls out), to sustain its structural integrity, could all of a sudden be subjected to many tons of water outside of the pipeline (attempting to push the walls in), making localised places of external higher pressure, which would frequently bring about pipe failure and localised collapse, causing subsidence of the ground above the pipeline manifesting as holes in the ground that would seem 'over-night'.

At about this time there was an escalating demand from the Water Companies to send divers up water filled pipes（Tap Water Pipe） armed with CCTV cameras, to survey for as far as their nerve or umbilical length would permit.

Inside a really brief time period the HSE Diving Executive, showed a keen interest within the safety aspect of sticking divers up pipes and ahead of long an excursion array of around 30m as a maximum was regarded as safe, supplying that all of the required safety precautions had been in location.