It's me again.
Please advise me on the intelligent pipeline pig overall dimensions. I've searched nearly every manufacturer and I cannot find a reliable source. Please direct me to it.
Thanks in advance.
There is nothing standard about smart pig length. They vary by manufacturer, by model, and by parameters collected. You just need to contact the company providing the services and get the dimensions on a pig that will return the data set you are looking for.
Nigel,
When you say 4 meters long, what diameter are you talking about? A 4-inch smart pig would be unlikely to be that long, but a 30-inch would be unlikely to be that short.
One vendor told me that his smart pig could not tolerate any pipeline bends tighter than 40D radius. Since you typically buy hot bends around 8D radius and even field bends tend to be around 25D he wasn't running many of his pigs in real service.
Bottom line is to pick a pig based on their having the capability to collect the data you are particularly interested in, have the ability to come to your location, and have equipment that will deal successfully with the issues that your line represents. Hook up with a vendor early in the process.