当马库斯拉米雷斯加入英威达维多利亚fixed equipment inspector 10 years ago, he knew what to expect on the job. Scaling scaffolding to assess equipment high above the ground. Boating across a 130-acre containment basin. Juggling a heavy schedule of inspections. All in a day’s work. But he never expected his resume would one day feature the phrase “FAA-certified drone pilot.”
并不是说无人机不熟悉马库斯。当他加入得克萨斯州维多利亚州的Invista时，他的职业生涯已经四年了，他在工业网站周围看到了一些嗡嗡声 - 他们自然引起了他的注意。长大后，马库斯一直是对技术和机器感兴趣的孩子。他喜欢把事情拆开。他说：“我想看看它们如何工作或使它们变得更好。”马库斯（Marcus）为他的职业和工作带来了同样的心态，一直在寻找改善检查计划的方法。然而，在大多数情况下，他以传统方式执行了工作，从视觉上进行了大多数检查，经常下台或进入大型容器，以检查结构是否合理。
但是看着承包商飞行了一架无人机检查耀斑，马库斯和检查员马特·埃尔南德斯（Matt Hernandez）开始谈论做出改变。马库斯说：“我们开始开玩笑说我们可以自己做到这一点。”这一想法扎根。不久之后，两人成功地提出了一项无人机检查计划，该计划增强了他们在成为问题之前识别潜在问题的能力。Marcus, the program has changed his career in ways he’d never dreamed.
“技术是未来的方式，”马库斯说。“我们必须拥抱它，找到最有帮助的是什么。”在维多利亚州的Invista，检查员现在定期使用无人机来检查制造尼龙中间体的设施中数百个坦克和塔的外观和内部。
But first, the team had to learn how to get those drones off the ground. After he and Matt pitched the drone concept to supervisor Danny Ballard, the pair attended an out-of-state 40-hour, FAA-certified drone pilot training. They learned how to inspect the drones before liftoff, run through pre-flight checklists, install software updates and, of course, fly the machines. It’s the same training that pilots receive, but without the flight time.
"There's a learning curve, and at first, I don’t think we knew what we were getting into,” Marcus recalls. “But these things are like Cadillacs, and once you do start you start flying them, it’s easy.”
尽管成为无人机飞行员并没有改变检查员在维多利亚州的角色，但该技术已大大改变了他们在工厂的工作方式。例如，以前的检查通常需要建造大量的脚手架，以使马特或马库斯爬上去检查塔或坦克墙。有时他们甚至需要进入遏制船进行检查。现在，他们可以将无人机飞往以前必须到达自己的地方，包括储存结构内部 - 无人机操作的壮举，需要大量技巧。
In another instance, the facility used to send two inspectors out in a boat to canvass its 130-acre containment basin. They'd shut down the spray coolers, and another person would monitor the process from the bank. Planning and completing the basin inspection took a minimum of a few days. Today, the team can fly a drone over the water and inspect the entire basin in 45 minutes.
Victoria site manager, Vince Salvador, added, “We are just at the beginning of exploring and experimenting with how drones can transform how work is done at the site, and I’ve been impressed by how they have already made a positive impact on our inspections and increased uptime at the site. This technology is proving useful for everything from inspection of high-voltage lines, flares and overhead piping to surveying progress during our wetland renovation project.”
For Matt, learning to fly the drones changed how he views his work. He’s always thinking about different ways to use the technology and what more they can get out of the drones. “If one of our technicians comes in and says that they don’t have access to something, the next question is, ‘Can we do anything with the drones that will get us the inspections that we need?’ ” Matt says. And both men agreed that while they’d never anticipated working with drones in their field, following their curiosity has paid off in big ways.
“Don’t hesitate to learn (new technology) even if you’re uncomfortable, because in this day and age, that’s what everything is going to,” Matt says. “New technology is the future for all generations, and it’s going to become bigger and better than what it is now.”
