Korea’s leading energy company, SK Energy's 'SK Ulsan Complex' (hereinafter, Ulsan CLX) is the first oil refinery in Korea and the world's single-largest petrochemical production facility. It is a facility where approximately 850,000 process facilities are tightly interlocked and operated on a site of approximately 8.3 million m², which is three times the size of Yeouido, and approximately 3,000 workers work.
Digital Transformation for Next-Gen Facility Management
In order to efficiently operate a complex environment with facility data from systems dispersed across a wide area, Ulsan CLX built OCEAN-H (Optimized & Connected Enterprise Asset Network Hub), a next-gen facility management system. Many companies select DT as a key initiative and invest a lot of budget and time, but it is not easy to bring actual value in the field. That is because if master data is not standardized, that disconnected data causes limitations in data input, sharing, and analysis processes. After years of data cleansing and system integration, Ulsan CLX successfully built OCEAN-H, an integrated facility management platform, and started to collaborate with PTC to provide solutions to the challenges in the field by making the digital information of this system easily available to field workers.
AR-based scaffolding system
In plant construction, where most of the work is done outdoors, scaffolding accounts for a significant portion of costs, reaching 10-15%. In addition, with stronger safety regulations being enforced, the number of scaffolding installation points is also increasing. Cost of scaffolding installation is being paid to subcontractors based on actual quantities of work done, including height, but it was difficult to make accurate calculations considering hundreds of installation points. If the reliability of data that is measured manually is low, it results in unnecessary cost being spent. For efficient management and cost reduction, systems should be improved.
The AR-empowered smart scaffolding system added AR technology to the existing methods that asked operators to take pictures to prove, allowing accurate calculation of cost by automatically calculating length, width and height. Scaffolding work quantity data then can be connected to OCEAN-H where scaffolding work can be managed by each work order. For AR implementation, PTC Vuforia was chosen.
The smart scaffolding system based on Vuforia automates cost calculation. Using the ground target technology, the floor area is set based on the corner of the floor where the scaffolding is installed, and the height is measured by virtually stacking the scaffolding based on the installed floor surface. By minimizing errors caused by manual confirmation and calculation of work quantity, teams can provide transparent calculation of scaffolding installation cost and reduce time required to create reports. With all these, Ulsan CLX now expects up to 10-15% of maintenance costs to be reduced compared to the precious method.
In addition, SK Energy can simulate the quantity required for the installation by virtual scaffolding installation and use the virtual scaffolding to calculate the extra payment and the total amount. It is possible to calculate costs in advance for large-scale installation, and it can also be used for maintenance plans.
Team Leader Jeong Chang-hoon of SK Energy's Smart Plant Team said, "Vuforia is an excellent solution that has very mature augmented reality technology and operates stably on various devices. It is also highly scalable with other existing installed facilities and tasks as it can build digital thread by connecting to other platforms like CAD and IoT."
AR Piping Design and Quality Inspection for Safety Processes
The total length of the pipes installed in Ulsan CLX is 600,000 km, which is the distance from the Earth to the Moon and back halfway. As it is a large-scale plant work site, piping work is also frequent, but incorrect design and work instructions can lead to risks that can lead to on-site accidents. For example, if cutting is required for pipe replacement and if the communication between the design team and workers is not accurate, the pipes filled with hazardous gases inside can be cut.
Clear work points serve as a preemptive response measure to prevent major accidents. When workers can check the site with a camera on a tablet without a separate scanner, the exact pipes that need to be worked on are marked in red, and the MSDS information and P&ID drawings required for this task are also provided. In particular, for worker safety, the pipe purge status can be checked in real time to prevent accidents. In addition, this process can be streamed to the metaverse space, allowing on-site workers and office staff to share work together.