Fitness-for-Service (FFS) is a standard and best practice used in the oil and gas industry to determine the fitness of in-service equipment for continued use. Our experts are highly experienced in the development and application of FFS techniques, particularly for the avoidance of brittle and ductile fracture and also general and local metal loss. TWI can help solve problems that may arise throughout life cycle of a component – from design to decommissioning – minimising risk and cost.
To summarise, the most important benefits of utilising Fitness-for-Service inspection are:
- Support design, fabrication and operation
- Plant life management
- Improve equipment availability
- Optimise maintenance and inspection scheduling
- Improve equipment safety
- Determine equipment residual life
- Integrate lessons learnt from previous equipment failures
- Life extension programmes
- Re-rating or operation change
TWI staff are actively involved in the ongoing research and development of industry standards such as British Standard BS 7910, ‘Guide on methods for assessing the acceptability of flaws in metallic structures', API Fitness-for-Service: API 579-1/ASME FFS-1 and the UK nuclear industry’s fracture assessment code R6, ‘Assessment of the integrity of structures containing defects.’