MIDSTREAM AND PIPELINES
Offshore Flooded Member
Detection
OGI sits down with Lucinda Crosthwaite-Eyre, Managing Director of Cygnus Instruments to speak about
their leading market position in fields such as Ultrasonic Thickness Gauging, Leak Detection and Flooded Member
Detection. Best known in the oil and gas sector for their ultrasonic thickness gauges, Cygnus Instruments explains to us
how they employ these technologies in particularly hard to reach places subsea, for example. In addition, Cygnus is paving
the way for the industry with its another interesting solution, Flooded Member Detection (FMD Testing). We learn more
about these technologies and others below.
OGI: Could you start by telling our readers the
breadth of Cygnus Instruments’ experience,
how long the company has been active, and its
reach?
Lucinda: Cygnus Instruments was formed in
the early 1980s in the South West of England.
We are a small, dedicated team that designs and
manufactures all of our own products right here
in the UK.
Although we make direct sales to customers
here in the UK and around the world, we
rely heavily on our very special relationships
with nearly 50 distributors. Some of these
relationships have existed for as long as the
company, and they are crucial to us. We expend
a lot of time and energy traveling, training and
supporting our friends and partners to ensure
that Cygnus customers get superlative service,
wherever they are in the world.
OGI: Please tell us about Cygnus’ credentials
and experience - in terms of your products and
services for the oil and gas sector?
FMD Diver Unit.
Lucinda: We have always been 100% focused
on ultrasonic NDT (Non-Destructive Testing)
and thus we consider ourselves the leading
specialist in ultrasonic Thickness Gauging,
Leak Detection and Flooded Member
Detection.
But Cygnus is perhaps best known in the oil
and gas sector for our ultrasonic thickness
gauges. In particular, our Intrinsically Safe
thickness gauge – which is the only one of its
kind in the world certified to Class 1, Div 1
(“Zone 0”) for ATEX, IECEx and CSA-US.
And in the subsea segment of the sector, we are
very well known for our range of underwater
thickness gauges. We make a range of units
that can be diver-held or mounted on ROVs
(Remotely Operated Vehicles). Cygnus also
makes a subsea thickness gauge that can be
mounted on a diver’s wrist and which displays
large, clear A-Scans and accepts twin crystal
probes (particularly useful for measuring
extremely heavy subsea corrosion).
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