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Drone-Based Industrial Chimney Inspection

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drone-based-industrial-chimney-inspection

Cipla Limited — Unit VII, Verna, Goa

Industrial chimneys are critical infrastructure assets in pharmaceutical, chemical, and manufacturing facilities. Operating continuously under extreme thermal, mechanical, and environmental stress, these structures require regular, thorough inspection to ensure structural integrity and operational safety. Garuda Aerospace was engaged to conduct a full drone-based NDT inspection of a 30.5m mild steel industrial chimney at Cipla Limited's Unit VII in Verna, Goa on 29th August 2023.

The Challenge

Conventional chimney inspection requires rope-access technicians, scaffolding, or man-baskets — methods that are slow, hazardous, and poorly suited to continuous industrial operations:

Rope-access inspectors and scaffold crews work at extreme heights under hot, chemically active exhaust conditions — creating serious occupational health and safety exposure

Scaffold erection and dismantling can take days or weeks, forcing costly production stoppages or limiting inspection to scheduled shutdown windows

Manual inspectors can only access specific points, leading to gaps in coverage and inconsistent data across inspection cycles

Ground-level or rope-access inspection cannot detect subsurface wall thinning, thermal anomalies, or early-stage corrosion

Complete 360° coverage of every segment at multiple compass bearings is effectively impossible using traditional methods for chimneys above 20–25m

The Drone Solution

Structure Inspected: 30.5m High Industrial Chimney — Mild Steel (IS 2062), 6 Segments

Tools Used: Zenmuse H20T camera (Visual & Thermal) + Tritex Multigauge 6000 NDT Drone probe at 2.25 MHz

Coverage: 45 ultrasonic measurement points across all 6 segments, 360° visual & thermal imaging from all four compass directions

Outcome: Complete structural, thermal, and material health survey completed in a single day with zero plant shutdown — identifying paint peeling, ladder damage, flange corrosion, and wall thinning requiring engineer consultation on Segments 1 and 3

Outcomes

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Completed a full 360° visual and thermal survey of all 6 segments of the 30.5m chimney in a single day, with zero plant disruption and no personnel working at height.

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Took 45 ultrasonic thickness measurements across all segments — identifying Segments 1 and 3 in the ORANGE zone with wall thickness reductions of 1.6mm and 1.9mm respectively against design values.

Item

Detected paint peeling on Segments 3, 4 and 5, ladder bending on Segments 4 and 5, and flange corrosion on Segment 5 — enabling targeted, prioritised maintenance actions.

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Delivered a complete quantified inspection report backed by drone-captured thermal, visual, and ultrasonic data — replacing subjective manual assessment with consistent, repeatable digital records.

Reference Case Study

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