Section 03
Technology
Steel, software and the strange new tools of the trade.
Automated welding, drone survey, in-line inspection and the data trail every joint now leaves behind. Technology asks a simple question of each new machine: what does it change for the person standing next to it?
Status
This section is in development. The items below are commissioning briefs — ideas we intend to report — not published articles.
On the commissioning desk
3 briefs- 1
Field Report
The Automatic Welder's Apprentice
Mechanized welding systems promise consistency. We ask the hand welders what they think the machines still can't feel.
Rights-cleared photography required
Commissioned photography for “The Automatic Welder's Apprentice”
- 2
Deep Dive
Reading the Ground Before It Moves
Geotechnical survey, LiDAR and the long history of getting the soil wrong.
Rights-cleared photography required
Commissioned photography for “Reading the Ground Before It Moves”
- 3
Explainer
A Pig's-Eye View
Inside the instruments that travel the inside of a line and the analysts who interpret what they find.
Rights-cleared photography required
Commissioned photography for “A Pig's-Eye View”