Our 2019
2019 was an important year for Quasset – the year we went global!
In addition to our office in the Netherlands, we have expanded to Manila in the Philippines and Houston, Texas in the United States. Our Manila office is home to a talented administrative and software team; our Houston location is key in offering Quasset services and products to clients in the US.
We have welcomed many new colleagues this year including software developers, project engineers, business and technical consultants, administrative support and innovation managers. Unique to our team is the wide number of different nationalities: our employees hail from the Netherlands, Australia, South Africa, Madagascar, Philippines, Italy, United Kingdom, United States, Peru, Turkey, Mexico, and Finland.
Our drive to innovate by building networks resulted in a number of remarkable projects and collaborations this year. We provided the support services to SPRINT Robotics that helped propel it to a different scale. We welcomed several major oil and gas companies to the Quasset Test Facility (QTF), performing onstream inspections, robot and drone testing, and the validation and certification of robotic solutions for inspection and maintenance activities. We also continued the Corrosion Under Insulation (CUI) trials project for Shell this past spring (Phase 1.5), with Phase 2 of the CUI project with Phillips 66, Royal Dutch Shell and Woodside Energy kicking off last August. Phase 3, a larger multi-client project, is aimed for a start in early 2020.
This fall we launched an Industry Challenge on behalf of project sponsors Phillips 66, Royal Dutch Shell and Woodside Energy, requesting proposals for adaptable and demonstrable robotic solutions that can access susceptible locations for CUI on non-magnetic piping systems and can reduce the maintenance cost and safety risks associated with piping system maintenance. In March 2020, we will be announcing the winning solution provider who will receive a reward of €25.000 and the opportunity to further their solution and its application through the next phases of the multi-year CUI development program.
The capabilities of Quasset Q-Pro are constantly expanding, offering customized solutions for risk analysis and investment forecasting solutions for a variety of infrastructures that provide water, gas and electricity, and city heating to customers. This year we launched Q-Pro Reporting, a solution to organize inspection data and turn it into a high-quality, fully customizable inspection report.
We continue to support companies in the execution of innovation-oriented projects ranging from workflow management systems for inspection and maintenance to the development of integrated 3D, virtual and augmented reality technologies. AssetBuilder, our web-based 3D visualization software, is set for a 2.0 release in 2020, adding new capabilities such as point clouds and new asset classes.
In our ongoing collaboration with Waternet and Xylem (formerly Pure Technologies), we strive to create proactive and pre-emptive solutions for the water sector. We are pleased to be an intermediary that can help drive innovation in the water sector. One example is the utilization of SmartBall, which performs periodic checks on a pipeline, reducing the risk of collateral damage as well as downtime.
We were thrilled to win two awards in 2019: the FD Gazellen Award, a prestigious prize for the fastest growing companies in the Netherlands; and a place in the KvK (Chamber of Commerce) Top 100 Most Innovative Companies in the Netherlands list.
In December, we gathered the entire Quasset team for our first-ever global team meeting. “One team” was the focus of our three intensive days together, which included a trip to the Oleum refinery in Dunkirk, France, team building activities, communication and culture workshops, and product and services presentations. Our team meeting culminated in a festively lit QTF, followed by a walking dinner just down the street from the testing facility.
We invite you to take a look at our team meeting days and get to know the whole Quasset team!
Cheers to a great year! We send you our warmest wishes this holiday season. May the coming year be filled with happiness, health, and prosperity.