British Firms Launch New Inspection Drone Solutions

One of the UK’s leading industrial training companies is joining forces with a key player in the growing construction/inspection drone industry.

Last month, Advanced Industrial Solutions announced a strategic partnership with British firm RectrixAS, a company specializing in drone solutions for oil-and-gas, petrochemical, renewable-energy and surveying industries.

Under the partnership agreement, the two companies will offer clients “specialist services including visual surveys, thermal inspections and risk assessments using an unmanned aerial vehicle for inaccessible places such as oil platforms or offshore wind turbines where it can be difficult, or costly, for engineers to safely reach,” according to an AIS press release.

AIS currently offers more than 200 training programs for the oil-and-gas industry. RectrixAS will work with the firm to produce more services such as “asset integrity management inspection, 2D/3D land and building surveying, volumetric analysis, as well as 4K HD aerial cinematography.”

The duo hopes to create a larger menu of access and inspection services available rule out the need for “expensive and risky scaffolding in the energy industry.”

“Some of the locations we work in can be hugely difficult to inspect and survey using conventional methods. Oil platforms, for example, can be hundreds of meters high and many miles offshore making inspecting and maintaining these structures difficult and expensive,” AIS spokesperson Mark Patterson said.

One benefit to AIS is the fact that RectrixAS already carries certification with the British Civil Aviation Authority. The company launched 18 months ago and is led by drone pilots Chris Young and Alex Westwood.

“Drones are becoming increasingly sophisticated and are perfect for some of the work that Advanced Industrial Solutions does,” Young said. Young and Westwood originally approached AIS with the concept and Young sees the partnership as an win-win, combining their drone experience with AIS’ industrial expertise.

“We are a new and ambitious company and originally approached Advanced Industrial Solutions with the concept of a partnership after recognizing the potential to work together. Our services complement each other perfectly. We provide the expertise in terms of sophisticated kit and piloting the drones and Advanced Industrial Solutions brings the technical and engineering know-how and global customer-base.”