Pipeline Inspection

Inside the early eighties and speaking normally, the only internal pipeline inspection was either carried out by the sewer inspection organizations, who could be inspecting mostly dry sewer pipe（Underground Sewer Pipe） sections over short distances; usually not exceeding 150m and who would stop when the pipe became surcharged towards the point exactly where the camera would grow to be submerged as well as the oil market support organizations who would run 'intelligent pigs' even though the oil pipes to assess weld integrity, pipe wall thickness and condition to be able to assess pipeline longevity and safe operating pressure.

At this time the water organizations who had been largely oblivious for the internal situation of their pipelines, adits, aqueducts and tunnels have been beginning to possess concerns about the integrity of their assets, a lot of of which had been constructed during the Victorian era or more not too long ago in the early fifties and had never been inspected and were unsuccessfully looking to uncover businesses and/or equipment that could carry out such surveys.

In some circumstances they were capable to de-water the pipelines（Water Supply Pipes） and if big adequate diameter, they would send a confined space group in to carry out a visual survey; such surveys had been naturally fraught with potential dangers, not least of which integrated the danger of collapse, flooding and the accumulation of toxic gasses.

De-watering came with its personal set of potential risks towards the structural integrity on the concrete, tunnelled and brick constructed pipelines; in several situations, small leaks produced by displaced joints, erosion and localised damage and so on. enabled the leaking water to discover a path through the ground and more than quite a few years, earth would be washed out from about the pipe, often resulting in massive water filled voids forming around the outdoors from the pipeline.

The newly de-watered pipeline which would frequently be partially reliant on the head of water within the pipeline (wanting to push the walls out), to preserve its structural integrity, could all of a sudden be subjected to numerous tons of water outside in the pipeline (looking to push the walls in), creating localised locations of external high pressure, which would frequently bring about pipe failure and localised collapse, causing subsidence of the ground above the pipeline manifesting as holes inside the ground that would seem 'over-night'.

At about this time there was an increasing demand in the Water Companies to send divers up water filled pipes（Tap Water Pipe） armed with CCTV cameras, to survey for as far as their nerve or umbilical length would permit.

Within an incredibly quick period of time the HSE Diving Executive, showed a keen interest in the security aspect of sticking divers up pipes and before long an excursion range of around 30m as a maximum was regarded as protected, supplying that all of the required safety precautions had been in location.