ILI PIG loading, tracking & cleaning

Why ILI tools need a specialist

An inspection run can pull out wax, scale, sludge and debris, and in a lot of lines that scale carries naturally occurring radioactive material. A tool that reads above the limit can't go back to the shop or onto the next job until it's decontaminated by someone licensed to do it.

USFS holds Texas NORM licenses and puts radiation-safety-trained personnel on every PIG job, so cleaning and decontamination happen in one stop instead of two.

How a PIG job runs

PIG cleaning is a field service. We come to the tool, wherever it comes out of the line; tools aren't shipped to Winona or our yards. A Radiation Safety Officer and a cleaning technician set up berm containment and clean the tool with heated pressure washers. Every drop of runoff is caught, collected in 55-gallon drums and sent to a NORM-certified disposal facility. You get documentation of the tool survey and the waste handling.

• Loading and unloading of in-line inspection (ILI) tools and cleaning pigs
• PIG tracking during the run
• On-site cleaning of in-line inspection (ILI) tools and cleaning pigs
• NORM surveys of tools before and after cleaning
• NORM decontamination when readings call for it
• Wastewater collected and disposed of at a NORM-certified facility
• Documentation of the tool survey and waste management

More than eight years of PIG work

USFS has been cleaning pipeline pigs for more than eight years for pipeline operators, midstream companies and the inspection vendors who run the tools. The tool is expensive and the next run is on a schedule, so we keep the turnaround tight and the paperwork clean.