- News
Image
Global energy technology leader Sumitomo SHI FW (SFW) and Gecko Robotics have announced their partnership to offer extensive inspection, damage analysis, maintenance, and improvement engineering services to CFB/BFB boiler owners and operators globally. This partnership agreement is an extension to an earlier agreement that covered only a limited number of countries.
CFB/BFB boilers are implemented in power plants across the globe due to their ability to consume lower cost, alternative fuels, including a wide range of biomass and waste derived fuels, resulting in carbon neutral power generation. Old, obsolete boilers can also be converted to CFB/BFB boilers, thus enabling power plant operators to reduce CO2 emissions.
In addition to lowering emissions, maintaining high reliability is critically important for asset owners. To do this, they need to be well equipped to inspect and maintain their infrastructure.
Asset health is of utmost importance to owners and operators. We are excited to expand our partnership with Gecko Robotics to a global scale and deliver an even broader service portfolio for our CFB/BFB customers. Accurate inspection data also supports our Digital Services and enables us to enrich advanced analytics to boost boilers’ performance without added risk.
Led by industry experts in Non-Destructive Testing (NDT), Gecko’s inspection team will inspect CFB/BFB boilers using cutting-edge technology, like Rapid Ultrasonic Gridding (RUG) which pinpoints corrosion and wall loss. Using this integrity data, Sumitomo SHI FW experts can help asset owners adjust operation regimens, while providing highly accurate maintenance recommendations and/or improvement engineering services.
I am excited to bring our collaboration with Sumitomo SHI FW to a new level through expansion of the partnership from Europe to a global scale. Together, we are bringing the best of both worlds to CFB boiler operators across the globe – unparalleled boiler operations and maintenance expertise from SFW and ability to capture boiler condition in the finest detail with GR robots.
About Sumitomo SHI FW
Sumitomo SHI FW (SFW) has been providing innovative energy solutions to our customers for over 100 years. Our mission is to enable the energy transition to a carbon-free future through decarbonization, decentralization and digitalization.
Our solutions expand from the world-leading circulating fluidized bed (CFB) technology to long-duration energy storage (LDES), waste-to-energy(W2E), waste-to-value(W2V), carbon capture and services for the global power and industrial markets. Through co-creation, partnerships, and ecosystem collaboration, SFW aims to accelerate the speed of decarbonization and create more value for our customers.
We are global energy experts with more than 1800 talented staff, across multiple locations, covering the globe in North America, Europe, and Asia.
For more information about our services, please visit: Basic Maintenance | Boiler Assessments | Sumitomo SHI FW (shi-fw.com)
About Gecko Robotics
Gecko Robotics pioneers robotic technology and software to enhance infrastructure reliability via comprehensive NDT inspections. Each year, over $100B is spent to maintain the critical infrastructure that serves our world, inspections being a critical component. Using robots keeps workers away from hazardous environments and provides orders of magnitude better data coverage than traditional methods, especially in hard-to-reach areas. The data allows the owner to better diagnose equipment damage and predict future life. This results in better-targeted maintenance, lower costs, higher up time, and, most importantly, fewer deaths and injuries.
For more information, please visit https://www.geckorobotics.com/
For more information, please contact:
Janna Etchells
Head of Marketing and Communications
Sumitomo SHI FW
E-mail: [email protected]
Mobile: +358 44 239 9471
Ilkka Koskinen
Director of Service Agreements and Digital Services
Sumitomo SHI FW
E-mail: [email protected]
Ivan Pistsov
Head of International Partnerships
Gecko Robotics
E-mail: [email protected]