SK Innovation's AI solution developed in collaboration with an artificial intelligence (AI) startup in Ulsan has become the first to receive government certification in the field of industrial equipment diagnosis automation.
SK Innovation announced on the 15th that the 'AI heat exchanger non-destructive testing automatic evaluation solution' developed with the startup 'DeepEye' has been selected for New Technology Certification (NET certification) by the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy.
NET certification is a system in which the government officially certifies excellent technologies that have been developed for the first time in Korea or have been innovatively improved under the Industrial Technology Innovation Promotion Act.
The solution developed by SK Innovation this time uses ultrasound to capture heat exchangers, after which AI analyzes the inspection data to detect defects. The defect detection accuracy exceeds 95%, and reading time can be reduced by over 90%.
Previously, data captured by ultrasound was analyzed by experts who visually detected defects. This reliance on the experience and skills of experts posed limitations in accuracy and speed, and there was also the issue of a decreasing number of experts.
Heat exchangers, composed of thousands of tubes, are key equipment responsible for temperature control during product manufacturing in refining and petrochemical processes. Approximately 7,000 are installed in SK Ulsan CLX alone, and about 30,000 are set up within the Ulsan petrochemical industry complex.
SK Innovation and DeepEye are planning to expand their business not only in the refining and petrochemical industries but also into various plants and industrial sites in power generation, battery, steel, and the global equipment diagnostics market based on this certification.