In Refineries and Petrochemical Industries dangerous items are treated and processed; this may results in a strong hazard for man and his environment.

These agents have an aggressive impact also on the machinery and equipment which process them.

Manufacturing conditions tend to enhance these hazards because of the Heavy Conditions at which plants have to work:

The whole processing system is risky, and it may be the cause of undesired and dramatic damages, both ecological and economical.

In order to have all these threats correctly monitored, a proper Machinery and Equipment Inspection Plan is crucial and must be the basis for a serious predictive analysis that should ensure better reliability and safety of plants, holding their functionality and value over the years.

Piping and Equipment thickness Gauging must be part of such Inspection Plan, as knowing the residual thickness of machines and equipment means to forecast their residual life and thereof to be able to replace them before they crash.

This can be obtained if controls are planned and performed following these three fundamental principles :

• Selection Criteria, which means locating the spots to be checked and defining the extent and frequency of surveys according to their criticity.
• Accuracy of Survey’s
• Data Analysis, performed with a specific software such as LIFE EXTENSION