Terra Drone invests in Dutch robotics company RoNik

Terra Drone Corporation, one of largest providers of industrial drone solutions in the world, is announcing the completion of its investment in RoNik Inspectioneering, a leading Dutch company that performs visual and ultrasonic inspections using wireless robotics. With this investment, RoNik Inspectioneering becomes a part of the Terra Drone group and gets renamed as Terra Inspectioneering. The company will focus on non-destructive testing (NDT) and inspection services of industrial, hazardous, and enclosed spaces, such as storage tanks, boilers, superheaters, furnaces, stacks, pipelines, and more. There will also be a dedicated focus on the oil and gas industry across the globe.

RoNik comes with a long history of providing NDT inspection services to the oil and gas industry, petrochemical organizations, and food and beverage companies in Europe. It has performed more than 200 inspections to date and counts global major oil and gas companies among its clients. Earlier this year, RoNik won the Drone Hero Europe 2019 contest which was organized by the European UAV Knowledge Area (EUKA). Terra Drone is known to invest in technology companies that offer differentiated unmanned solutions to users, and RoNik fits this bill perfectly.

RoNik has carved a unique niche in the industry by developing a propriety UT technology which makes ultrasonic thickness testing at hard-to-reach indoor places extremely easy. The use of drones for tank inspections not only eliminates the need to put humans in dangerous places, but it also reduces the time taken for inspection by 40% to 60%. The data captured by RoNik’s patented UT drones is shared in the form of innovative cloud-based 3D models. These reports are fully compliant with storage tank industry inspection standards such as API-653 and EEMUA 159.

Marien van den Hoek, CCO and co-founder of RoNik, says, “The timing is perfect for us to have a joint venture with Terra Drone. The deployment of our technology via Terra Drone’s global network will create unprecedented market growth for all our group companies.”

Toru Tokushige, CEO, Terra Drone Corporation, says, “Oil and gas companies are fast realizing how drones can be used to improve plant operation rates, save time, and reduce costs. By incorporating RoNik’s proven and reliable non-destructive testing (NDT) technologies and inspection services to the solution set we offer via Terra Drone’s global network of more than 25 countries, we will be able to cater to oil and gas companies in all parts of the world.”