Method and arrangement for inspection and requalification of lined vehicles used for transporting commodities and/or hazardous materials

A test procedure for inspecting a vehicle adapted to transport commodities, comprising the steps of:

• inspecting a lining disposed in a tank of a tank car;
• comparing at least one prescribed defect condition on the liner with predetermined models, said predetermined models conveying a discrete range of severity levels of said at least one prescribed defect condition;
• determining, based on the comparison, a severity level for the at least one prescribed defect condition;
• recording the severity level for the at least one prescribed defect condition;
• determining a percentage of lining complete extended life cycle for a lining inspected;
• and
• associating, for the determined percentage of complete extended life cycle, the combined defect severity levels of a plurality of said prescribed defect conditions to one of a plurality of discrete lining condition values.

A method of standardizing a test procedure for inspecting a vessel adapted to contain commodities, comprising the steps of:

• defining at least one defect type;
• defining a plurality of defect severity's within said at least one defect type;
• and
• generating a pattern or graphical model of each of said defect severity's within said at least one defect type;
• correlating each pattern or graphical model to a corrosiveness of a transported commodity to determine a repair disposition of the lining in relation to said pattern or graphical model to determine if lining repair is required prior to a next scheduled lining inspection.

A method of standardizing a test procedure for inspecting a vessel adapted to contain commodities, comprising the steps of:

• defining at least one defect type;
• defining a plurality of defect severities within said at least one defect type;
• and
• generating a model of each of said defect severities within said at least one defect type;
• correlating a lining condition to one of a plurality of distinct combinations of models of one defect type and severity with models of another defect type and severity.

A computer-readable medium bearing instructions enabling a computer having at least one processor to facilitate inspection of a vessel adapted to contain commodities, the instructions, when executed by a computer, causing the computer to carry out the steps of:

• prompting for selection of one of a plurality of indicated defect types;
• displaying a plurality of patterns or graphical models of the selected defect type, said plurality of patterns or graphical models defining a corresponding plurality of defect severity levels;
• prompting for selection of one of said patterns or graphical models substantially corresponding to an inspection result;
• performing at least one of storing the selected pattern or graphical model and defect type and outputting a signal corresponding to the selected pattern or graphical model and defect type;
• and
• comparing the selected pattern or graphical model to a stored index of acceptance criteria values for the corresponding defect type, said acceptance criteria values relating to at least one of a commodity integrity, a vessel lining integrity, and a vessel integrity, over a predetermined periodic inspection interval.