Season’s Greetings from Quasset
2022 is drawing to an end and we’d like to take this opportunity to reflect on the year’s progress and express our gratitude to all those we have collaborated with this past year.
Societal challenges have made 2022 a very turbulent year: exiting from a COVID- restricted world to a new normal for which we are still trying to find the balance; massive geo-political upheaval caused by the terrible war due to Russian aggression in Ukraine, resulting in great human tragedy and global disruption in energy supply and the wider economy including a massive spike in inflation.
We have felt the full force of these changes, but by keeping a strong focus on the wellbeing of our workforce and helping our clients to navigate change, we have been able to grow strongly again, both in absolute terms as well as organizational strength. We’d like to share with you some of the 2022 Quasset highlights.
Building Networks, Driving Innovation is our company motto and innovation and collaboration were the focus of many projects this past year. At the Quasset Test Facility in the Netherlands and the Quasset Innovation Hub in Houston, we developed and implemented test procedures for various inspection robots in the energy industry, working both off-site in our test facilities and on-site in refineries. These projects provided both asset owners and technology providers valuable insights, and support the operationalization of robotics for inspections and maintenance.
Robotics and AI were also a part of different Quasset projects this year for large asset owners in the chemical industry. These ranged from site assessments of corrosion and coating using AI and robotics, to developing an inspection data management system to review data from drone and robotic inspections collected, analyzed and annotated by AI.
We started commercialization of HoloGrid, our mixed reality application for NDT inspections. We were able to prove quantitively that digitalizing the grid process has a huge impact on the reliability and repeatability of measurement data and drastically improves productivity. Connectivity with UT devices was a very important addition to HoloGrid’s functionality, as we move towards providing a total solution for mixed reality for inspections. In 2023 we will introduce HoloInspect, a collection of different modules that provides an end-to-end inspection solution for multiple NDT applications.
For Engie México we created a digital tool to analyze Class Locations and High Consequence Areas for their gas pipeline network to comply with the Mexican legislation. This visual and digital solution used components of Quasset Q-Pro and by adding new layers and functionality, enabling Engie to provide higher quality outputs at much lower costs and with a superior GIS user interface.
We continued our growth in the water sector. For multiple water utilities we implemented and improved risk analysis and replacement forecasting models, and we designed a framework for standardization of inspection data of water pipelines in collaboration with KWR and Dutch water utilities. We also implemented a pilot creating a digital twin of the KWR test loop using our AssetBuilder software.
Our participation in PILOTING, the European Horizon 2020 project that focuses on the use of robotic technologies to increase efficiency and quality of inspection and maintenance of aging infrastructures, continued this year. The I&M Intelligence and Visualization Portal we developed to digitalize the inspection process is operational and was recently piloted as part of trials on viaducts, tunnels and refineries. View this video to observe the workflow of visual inspection
Quasset also joined the SIMAR project this fall, together with seven high-profile European partners from five EU Member States. The SIMAR Project aims to develop solutions using drones to deploy advanced NDT sensors at height, offering advanced mixed reality and AI support for inspectors and drone pilots.
One of the highlights of 2022 was reuniting our four offices after 2,5 years! [Re]align & [Re]connect was the theme of the Quasset Global Team Meeting held in mid-May 2022 in the Netherlands. It was a full week with team-building workshops, biking, excursions, and presentations. Our time together gave us renewed energy. Take a look at a short aftermovie to see the whole Quasset team together!
We’ll kick off 2023 by officially opening a second Quasset office in the Netherlands. Strategically located close to Belgium and France, the Terneuzen office enables us to further expand innovation services to the region.
Building and maintaining relationships are essential to the success of Quasset and we would not be where we are today without your support. We can’t wait to support your success again in 2023, as well as contributing to a better and safer society.
We wish you a happy holiday season and our best wishes for an inspired 2023!
On behalf of the whole Quasset team,
Sincerely,
Tjibbe Bouma
Luc Stakenborg