An Integrated Quality Management System for Piping Fabrication Using 3D Laser Scanning and Photogrammetry

Abstract

Addressing deficiencies and defects that occur during construction projects is costly and time consuming. The manual quality assurance programs currently used in the industry have certain limitations, including human error and lack of consistency. Hence, there is a need for integrated electronic models that employ new technologies and methods. This research introduces an integrated construction quality control system that has the potential to improve quality management processes in the construction field for piping construction, which is a complex process often requiring rework. The proposed integrated system relies on data collected from construction sites using photogrammetry and laser scanning, which is then used to compare actual work performed to that designed. The proposed system aims to improve the promptness and accuracy of quality assurance processes, in particular dimension measurements, by avoiding human error and integrating defect detection and quality management. The use of this system has highlighted some of the limitations during data fusion and acquisition process, which are highlighted in this paper. These aspects must be considered to increase the reliability of the acquired information.

Quality assurance for high-frequency mechanical impact (HFMI) treatment of welds using handheld 3D laser scanning technology

“…This technology has been employed in construction projects, to a minimal extent, for dimensional control and QA purposes [24,25]. Herein, 3D scanning results are used to conduct weld toe radius and indent depth measurements for different HFMI treatment levels.…”

Automated Registration of 3D Point Clouds with 3D CAD Models for Remote Assessment of Staged Fabrication

“…Using a computer that is facilitated to a 3.7 GHz processor and 32 GB RAM, the processing time for performing 30 iterations of the developed model takes about 5 to 6 seconds. Considering the required time for data acquisition and preprocessing, this method is significantly more efficient than existing methods for fabrication quality assessment (Safa et al 2013). The achieved RMS value in addition to the visualized results shows that the proposed registration technique is correctly performed and is sufficiently reliable for making further decision with regards to the fabrication quality and installation process.…”

“…Tests were conducted at an Aecon fabrication shop in Cambridge, Ontario. The fabricated pipe spools were tested to measure the performance of the proposed model in order to be used instead of the existing manual assessment approaches that are prone to error, time intensive and inaccurate (Safa et al 2013). The results show that the proposed process is performed in the order of several seconds and has a high level of accuracy.…”

Review of non-destructive testing methods for physical condition monitoring in the port industry

“…Most NDT methods have been primarily concerned with the size of the smallest crack that can be detected and measured. Even though this is of extraordinary significance, the entire area of crack measuring, both length, and depth, turns out to be somewhat questionable if the matter of estimating reliability is not also considered [32,33,34]. To investigate the effect of crack closures on the reliability of NDT calculations of crack measure, tests were performed on mild steel plate samples each having a fatigue crack.…”