Temperature is the most commonly measured parameter in the process industry (ABB). Highly regulated industries demand accuracy, repeatability, and reliability in their processes. Until recently, these businesses relied on intrusive temperature sensors that often created more problems than solutions.
Temperature sensors monitor system temperatures to ensure they remain within a specified range. In industrial processes such as oil and gas, chemicals, pharmaceuticals, and food and beverage production, temperature measurements often need to be taken at many different locations throughout the process.
The most common temperature sensors used in industrial applications are intrusive (contact) devices that measure temperature by being inserted directly into the process medium, typically through probes or thermowells installed in process pipes.
Installing these sensors generally requires cutting an opening in the pipe and adding welded nozzles to accommodate thermowells or probes – procedures that have long been accepted as a costly and potentially risky part of industrial operations.
Thermowells protect temperature sensors from damaging conditions such as high pressure, corrosive chemicals, and high or variable flow rates. Thermowells are also used as way to allow installation of replacement sensors without shutting the process down or opening the pipe.
Installing thermowells in piping typically requires process operations to be paused, sometimes for significant periods of time.
Once installed, continuous exposure to abrasive or harsh fluids can cause these sensors to degrade over time, often requiring another system shutdown to replace the sensor.
Drilling a hole into pressurized live pipes is dangerous for both people and equipment, including exposure to abrasive, toxic, corrosive materials, or dangerous flow rates.
Other challenges include:
Performing hot work in refineries, chemical plants, and other hazardous environments requires formal hot work permits.
Hot work permits allow temporary operations such as welding, cutting, grinding, or soldering that may produce open flames, sparks, and high heat. It acts as a safety checklist, involving safety precautions, use of proper protective equipment, and facility risk management protocol.
They also involve significant coordination efforts that can delay projects for weeks.
In addition to requiring a hot work permit, you can’t cut or weld into a live pipe. Processes must be shut down, sections isolated, and systems drained before any work can begin.
Any unplanned downtime in a continuous operation is expensive and risky, so many temperature measurement upgrades are pushed off until planned turnarounds.
Hot work introduces ignition sources. Every penetration creates the potential for leaks, structural stress points, and pressure drops. In explosive environments, that risk can have catastrophic consequences.
Installing intrusive temperature measurement devices requires skilled welders, experienced instrumentation specialists, and careful production team planning.
Ongoing labor shortages and an aging workforce have depleted those resources. Today’s maintenance teams are stretched thin and seemingly small projects become major undertakings when careful coordination is required across multiple trades and disciplines.
Engineers are dealing with two realities right now. Skilled labor is harder to secure, and safety and compliance requirements are stricter than ever.
That combination makes complex instrumentation installs harder to justify, even when improvements are necessary. Fortunately, non-invasive (clamp-on) temperature sensors offer flexible monitoring and reconfiguration without having to redesign piping systems.
Clamp-on temperature sensors allow industrial plants to monitor temperature changes in their processes without penetrating the pipe. Install can occur in minutes, not days, reducing downtime costs.
And the need for hot work is virtually eliminated, removing safety exposure and permit requirements.
Non-invasive temperature sensing allows for a single variant for all piping locations in your plant. There is no need for thermowells, so you can eliminate hundreds of inspections at turnaround.
Instead of waiting for your next shutdown, clamp the sensor onto your pipe when and where temperature monitoring is required. When you no longer need it, simply remove and install somewhere else.
For engineers and maintenance managers already stretched thin, the value of non-invasive temperature sensors is immediate:
By avoiding welding and shutdowns, the total installed cost is often considerably lower. And because these devices are movable, they can be used for temporary measurements, troubleshooting, or wherever measurement is needed.
The NINVA™ non-invasive, clamp-on temperature sensor from ABB eliminates the need to cut into the process to achieve optimal temperature regulation. There’s no drilling, cutting, welding, or thermowell needed. Instead, the measurement probe has direct contact with the pipe surface.
How does it work? ABB’s non-invasive temperature measurement sensors are developed with the process industry in mind. Clamp sensor onto the outside of the pipe, and its dual-sensor architecture and proprietary algorithm software calculate internal temperature without piercing the pipe.
NINVA’s measurements perform comparably with traditional sensors. NINVA’s approach first predicts how the surface temperature of a pipe differs from its process temperature. Then the device, which is built around ABB’s proven TTH300 transmitter and a pair of temperature sensors, compensates for errors from surface sensors, such as ambient and contact effects, to capture the pipe’s true surface temperature.
The NINVA sensor has undergone rigorous testing and meets international safety standards for reliability and risk reduction in safety-critical applications.
NINVA™ Non-Invasive Temperature Sensors:
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Traditional temperature sensors that use thermowells certainly have their place. We recommend them all the time depending on the process need.
However, non-invasive temperature clamp-on sensors are most valuable in industries where accuracy is critical but penetrating a process pipe or vessel is unsafe, inconvenient, or unhygienic.
Non-invasive temperature sensors make sense in oil and gas facilities. Hot work adds additional fire and explosion risks to an already dangerous and hazardous environment. Plus, waiting for hot work permits takes time from tight deadlines, increasing the likelihood of errors from workers rushing to get operations back online.
Clamp-on sensors eliminate those risks, allowing temperature monitoring on active lines without process interruptions or ignition risks.
In chemical plants, processes are often evaluated for performance and any improvements in the process typically require instrumentation changes. The corrosive or high-pressure nature of chemical processing increases risks associated with pipe penetration, including leaks, contact exposure, fire, or explosions. Non-invasive temperature measurement reduces these risks and facilitates process optimizations when required.
Power plants need real-time temperature data for operators to make informed adjustments about process lines to avoid equipment overheating or performance issues. Any planned outages are tightly controlled, leaving little room for delays. Clamp-on sensors allow for monitoring without taking equipment offline, reducing outage scope during upgrades.
The rising costs of raw materials and energy, changes in demand, and strict regulations require tight control in the food and beverage industry. Product or recipe changes require fast and safe line changeovers and effective food processing temperature control. Each time a process pipe is cut or drilled in hygienic process pipes to adapt to a new line, contamination risks increase.
Non-invasive sensors enable fast and effective changeovers when needed and avoid additional clean-in-place (CIP) measures.
The quality of pharmaceutical products depends on the environmental controls during storage and handling. In sensitive pharmaceutical environments, the temperature must be monitored during the entire lifecycle, from raw materials, manufacturing, and packaging to distribution.
Any piping modification can trigger requalification. Non-invasive, clamp-on temperature measurement does not require cutting or drilling into the process line and supports temporary or supplemental monitoring without a full revalidation cycle.
Highly regulated industries require advanced temperature sensors that ensure strict adherence to quality and safety standards to prevent costly product spoilage, chemical reactions, recalls, and severe regulatory penalties.
MCE provides sensors, transmitters, and gauges for temperature, flow, pressure, level, and analytical measurements.
MCE collaborates with ABB to help engineers, managers, and maintenance teams optimize performance with quality equipment, expert application support, and responsive service.
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Let us know how we can help improve your processes today.