I have a sister who has her Bachelor of Science Degree in Nursing along with a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Psychology and Sociology, and who also holds a MBA Degree. She is a gifted nurse, a great mother and a perfect mentor to the many women she leads. She is however, terrible at Mathematics! I imagine she can properly calculate the right dosage of a medicine for you based on your weight and other factors, but ask her to calculate the area of a circle and you will be reminded of why blonde jokes are one of the hallmarks of comedy performances.
Even the most brilliant people don’t know everything. There was a time when I was younger when I was certain that I knew everything there was to know about the world. With age came true wisdom though. While I am still certain that if you limit the topic to a small enough subset I can be one of the smartest people in a room, I now understand that my knowledge isn’t infinitesimal. I have learned that surrounding myself with smart people isn’t a challenge to what I know, but an opportunity to hear other perspectives and to gain further knowledge.
So what am I leading up to with this introduction? The value of teamwork in inspections. Non-metallic inspections are unique by nature, and it has been estimated that less than 10% of the vessels produced for use by industry are non-metallic. If you remove the small thermoplastic commodity storage vessels commonly used, then less than 5% of the vessels being produced are manufactured from either fiberglass or fiberglass-thermoplastic dual laminates. Equipment inspectors with non-metallic experience are an even rarer commodity. Our Maverick inspectors have unique access to one of the strongest non-metallic engineering groups in the world. They are able to learn from these engineers why failures occur, in order to assist our customers in understanding what happened during a failure. Most good inspectors can tell you if you have a cracked flange or that your vessel has a leak, but what needs to be done to avoid future failures? What is repairable and what equipment should be removed from service? That ability makes Maverick inspections unique.
Another way Maverick Inspectors gain unique knowledge is from the varied types of inspection work we conduct. Our inspectors have the opportunity to see many different fabrication styles and methods by performing fabrication inspections at different manufacturing facilities. Having knowledge of these different manufacturing methods helps our inspectors understand where to look for potential issues. Bonding issues between pultruded components and filament wound parts? We’ve seen that. Hub cracking in contact molded flanges? We’ve seen that. Corrosion barrier laminates debonding from vacuum infused parts? Yep, we’ve seen that too. Knowing why these issues happen leads our inspectors to look in the proper places to find them. Perfect corrosion barrier laminates remaining after 20 years of service? We have seen that too. More often than not our inspectors confirm that non-metallic equipment is still in outstanding operating condition, and we can do that with confidence from knowing what potential issue to look for.
Our inspectors also perform on-site inspections for process equipment. This provides them with first-hand knowledge of how different manufacturing methods perform in real-world applications. It gives them information regarding how systems and equipment react with each other, what are common weak points in non-metallic equipment and what pitfalls we commonly notice in equipment. These on-site inspections have a side benefit of providing extensive safety training for our inspectors. Our inspectors understand the safety concerns of our clients and the manufacturing plants they regularly visit, and we consider the safety of our inspectors as well of the equipment we inspect to be a critical part of what we do.
Finally, one of the most important aspects of our varied inspections is our ability to share this knowledge between our inspectors. Our inspectors regularly come together to present their unique experiences to each other and our engineering group, thus enabling all of our inspectors to benefit from each other’s knowledge and from the experience of our engineering team. This practice of coming together also provides Maverick the opportunity to train our inspectors on the latest technology and tools on the market, either for their future use during a future inspection or for them to understand why we don’t support some developing inspection technologies. This knowledge sharing is important to Maverick, to ensure that all our customers receive the most thorough and detailed inspections possible. Irrespective of which of our inspectors are performing the work, we want our customers to receive the best possible service from the most knowledgeable inspectors in the industry. That’s how you build confidence in a company, and in the non-metallic equipment market. That’s what makes Maverick Inspections different. Let us prove it to you, and build your confidence in the performance of your non-metallic equipment.
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