I N N O V AT I O N S • J A N U A R Y - M A R C H 2 0 1 4
6
Tapping into Tomorrow
Innovations in Hot Tap Technology
for Safer, Better Results
David Turner is a futurist, a visionary. Since April 2013, he’s
also been T.D. Williamson’s Director of Hot Tapping and Plugging
Technology. In that role, he’s spent considerable time and energy
on how innovations can make the hot tapping process safer, easier and
more efficient.
Not only is he guided by listening to and understanding customer
needs, he has an eye on what consumer products manufacturers are
doing to improve their customer support capabilities. Which is why,
when you speak with him, he muses about a time when hot tapping
may include the kind of smart-tool interactions that GM’s OnStar
®
and
Apple’s Siri
®
have brought to the marketplace.
In the meantime, he sees T.D. Williamson’s remote controlled hot
tapping equipment as a logical first step in the journey toward merging
current capabilities with tomorrow’s thinking.
Operators around the globe generally choose hot tapping for planned
or emergency maintenance, modification or repair of pressurized systems.
The process enables them to cut and tie into pipelines and vessels while
they remain in operation. That way, operators can avoid shutting down
Leading the charge for
a future in hot tapping
that is better, faster,
safer, and maybe even
a little revolutionary.
T E C H N O L O G Y F O C U S
“What can I help you with?”
Has there ever been a more soothing sound than
that, the voice of Apple’s Siri
®
, asking not IF she
can make your life easier, but how?
Sure, you know that your automated personal
assistant is merely a voice-activated search engine
that’s capable of mimicking human conversation.
But, she – or, rather, he, in British English and
many other dialects – is just so useful.
Ever since Rosie the Robot cleaned the
Jetson’s Orbit City abode and HAL, the sentient
computer of
2001: A Space Odyssey
, interacted
with the Discovery One crew, people have yearned
for better, more intelligent help. In an ideal
world, there’d be no need for owner’s manuals,
online chat, instructive YouTube videos, or the
What Do Hot Tapping and Siri
®
Have In Common?
