The height and complex nature of communication towers and radio towers means that up close visual inspection has always been a challenge for traditional inspection teams.
That is until now. With drone inspection services, we can provide a complete visual inspection of communication towers using commercial drones fitted with photography, video and thermal imaging cameras.
Our commercial grade drones are shielded from electromagnetic interference which allows us to conduct aerial inspections of communication towers without the fear of interference.
The benefits of drone inspection for communication towers
Safety. Using remote controlled drone surveys removes the need to put human life at risk by climbing these difficult structures and working at-height.
Cost savings. Rather than having to hire an entire specialist inspection crew equipped with working at height equipment, a drone inspection can be conducted by a single drone pilot. Using drones for visual inspection offers REAL cost savings over traditional methods of NDT inspection.
Speed. A standard drone inspection flight can be conducted in 30 minutes and collect thousands of photos in that time. A traditional inspection crew will take substantially longer to conduct the same process. This means that we can cover more ground in a shorter time – vital if you have multiple communication towers that you require inspection work to be carried out on.
Quality. A drone can inspect structures from vantage points that are simply impossible using traditional inspection teams. Our drones are equipped with award winning software that includes auto pilot controls which can be used to create precise flight paths using GPS co-ordinates for specific commercial drone inspection requirements. This flight path can be saved and reused to conduct exact overlapping inspections that can be carried out over a long time period. This ability is ideal for aerial inspections that need to monitor ‘points of interest’ on tower structures.
Difficult Access Specialists
While some communication towers are located within cities or the surrounding areas, other communication towers and radio towers are located in difficult to access location. Islands, coastal locations and in deep highland/rugged locations. None of this is a problem for our inspection team. We have 4×4 access vehicles and an offshore access vehicle. We are commercially endorsed for operating Power Driven Vessels up to 24 metres with up to 12 passengers and crew. Our Boat Service can be used in up to Category 3 waters with a maximum 20 miles from Safe Haven zone that includes night time use AND without the ‘Fair Weather’ restriction.
This means that we can easily conduct drone inspection work on Islands and rugged countryside locations with minimal issue.
Why is visual inspection so important?
Scheduled visual inspection of building structures, power lines, road and rail networks, bridges and communication towers (to name just a few) is critical to ensure that these structures, communication devices and transportation links are operating at as close to 100% efficiency as possible.
Regular planned visual inspection can spot developing issues early and allow companies to plan repairs and servicing that are carried out at preferred times to minimise disruption. Not to mention the cost savings of catching these things early. A minimal maintenance weld repair on a storm damaged power line support is a lot cheaper than having to build a completely new power line support. Regular visual inspections conducted by drone survey are the best solution to provide this.
With the use of our drone inspection and survey services, we can document vantage points during a survey which are literally impossible to achieve with traditional methods. With strong battery life (that is constantly improving) on our drones, we can cover significant distances of power line in a single drone flight. The Balmore drone pilots are fully qualified to pilot commercial grade drones and we are incredibly proud to be able to provide a quicker and more accurate inspection and monitoring service than other current traditional methods. All whilst being able to offer a significant financial saving and reduced risk of human life while working at heights.
Find out more
To find out more about our drone inspection work in the Communications Sector, please call our Glasgow head office today.
When you contact our team to discuss your inspection needs, we can explain the full process and arrange a visual demonstration of our drone survey capabilities either with an arranged demonstration while we conduct an initial site survey or by sending you video case study examples of our previous work in a similar field. Simply contact our friendly team at our Glasgow head office to discuss your unique requirements.
