Industrial Inspection
Refineries, chemical plants, gas terminals and power stations all depend on routine inspection, and the places that most need checking are often the ones people should enter least. Ferradyne builds rugged robots that collect repeatable condition and hazard data without routine human exposure.
Who we build for
- Plant asset integrity, reliability, operations and HSE teams
- Inspection and NDT contractors
- Operators of refineries, chemical plants, LNG terminals and power plants
What the robot does
- Walks rounds on stairs, grating and catwalks, on its own or under remote teleoperation
- Reads gauges and checks for gas leaks, heat and abnormal sound
- Records location-tagged findings that maintenance and inspection teams can act on
- Works safely around people, takes instructions, and answers questions about what it finds and its own condition
- Returns to charge and resumes, with 4+ hours of runtime
Built for hazardous areas
Hazardous locations are classified by zone according to how often an explosive atmosphere is present. We are targeting Zone 1, where one is likely during normal operation, with sealed, dust-proof and water-resistant construction rated to IP67 or better.
The standards that govern this work include:
- ATEX and IECEx zone classification, with protection concepts from IEC 60079
- UL 6260, the first US standard for robots and drones in hazardous locations
- IP ingress protection ratings for dust and water
- In the US, the local authority having jurisdiction decides what is acceptable (NEC, OSHA 1910.307)
Why our approach is different
Few certified inspection robots exist, and they are limited by cost, charging, payload flexibility and what they can touch. Much of the difficulty is at the component level: sealed, explosion-proof actuators are hard to buy. We make our own, which is why our actuators are built for these environments from the start.
A path from pilot to production
Plants adopt new equipment in steps: a paid pilot on a single route, then safety, cybersecurity and management-of-change review, then rollout. We plan around that process and work with your team on the first route that causes you the most pain today.
Work with us
If you run inspection rounds in a classified area and have a route that is slow, risky or unreliable, we would like to hear about it. Get in touch.