While aerial drones appeal to a growing number of hobbyists, these tools have begun transforming the inspection industry in profound ways. Increasingly, companies depend upon drones to help evaluate the condition of various business assets. This emerging field appears poised to revolutionize projects as diverse as real estate inspection and paper machine dryer roll inspection.
Drone inspections offer at least three significant time and money-saving benefits. First, they allow inspectors to access heights more easily. Second, this form of exploration enhances the efficiency of initial screening procedures. Third, aerial craft can employ infrared thermography and other highly specialized capabilities to inspect harsh environments. Just consider some of the ways these potentials contribute to businesses today:
For decades, working at high elevations has posed a serious occupational hazard for people inspecting certain types of properties. For example, during 2011, the federal government’s Centers For Disease Control And Prevention (“the CDC”) described falls as one of the nation’s leading causes of accidental deaths. Fully four out of every five accidental falls sending construction workers to emergency rooms in the United State involve the use of ladders. From roof inspections to the surveillance of grain storage bins and bridges, working at heights sometimes poses challenges for employees checking on the condition of company assets. Drones offer a way to accomplish many surveillance tasks without having to require human beings to climb ladders or ride in cranes. The spread of drone inspections will likely reduce some types of job-related inspection accidents.
Aerial drones supply other inspection advantages, too. For instance, their use may spare a company significant expenses during initial tank and piping inspection screening operations. Instead of paying for manned air flights to ascertain that a pipeline appears intact and unbroken, tank and piping inspections via aerial drones offer a highly cost-effective alternative. Firms can allocate their employee time to better advantage by screening out problems with the assistance of drones.
Finally, whether a business needs to conduct a paper machine dryer roll inspection in an industrial setting or use infrared thermography to evaluate the energy efficiency of a skyscraper, convenient aerial drones offer versatile tools. In some cases, such as a suspected gas leak from a pipeline, challenging environmental conditions may prevent humans from pinpointing the site of damage rapidly. A specialized tank and piping inspection drone can survey potential work sites first from a distance to help expedite the repair process.
For all these reasons, the use of drone inspections appears likely to increase in the future. By harnessing this powerful technology to enhance worker safety, reduce screening expenditures and optimize work settings, businesses save time and money. The development of new specialized aerial drones to assist inspections will help promote a better quality of daily life on the job for thousands of people.