Where Isolation Walkdowns Actually Slow Down
In a substation, a treatment works or a process plant, the isolation procedure exists. It is written down, it is correct, and it is in a folder in the van, a binder in the switchroom, or a PDF on a laptop that has no signal where the work is. So the technician walks back, or works from memory, or calls someone.
Steel.vision puts those documents on the iPad in the technician's hands and answers questions about them on the spot. Ask for the isolation and earthing sequence for a given unit and the answer comes back with the file name and the page number it came from, so it can be checked against the paper in seconds rather than taken on trust.
Cited, or It Does Not Answer
An assistant that invents a plausible isolation step is worse than no assistant. Every answer is drawn from the manuals loaded on that device and carries the file and page it came from. Where the manuals do not contain the answer, the software says so plainly instead of filling the gap. Where the on-device model is unsure, the underlying passage from the manual is shown as it is written.
The same applies on the drawing. The schematic tracer will report that a route crosses another line and is unconfirmed rather than declaring a connection it cannot stand behind. The design principle across the product is that an uncertain answer must look different from a confident one.
A Record of What Was Seen
The technician can capture the equipment in front of them to an on-device log: the frame as seen, whatever the software recognised in it, and the time. That log stays on the iPad. It is a working record for the crew and the supervisor, useful when writing up a job or recalling which panel was photographed on which visit.
What the software does
- Answers from your documents: isolation steps, torque figures, ratings and limits, each citing file and page.
- Reads what is in front of it: equipment recognition in the camera view, and nameplate and tag text read on the plant, which opens the matching manual.
- Traces the drawing: follows a line between two tapped points on a P&ID or single-line diagram, and flags crossings rather than guessing.
- Keeps an on-device log: captured frames with their tags and timestamps, held on the iPad.
- Works with no signal: the model and the manuals are on the device. Nothing is uploaded.
What it does not do
- It does not verify an isolation, confirm de-energisation, or read the position of a valve stem or a breaker lever. Proving dead is done with the approved instrument, by the authorised person.
- It is not a permit-to-work system and does not sign, issue or hold permits.
- It is advisory software, not a safety instrumented function, and carries no safety integrity rating.
- The iPad is a standard, unmodified device with no hazardous-area certification. Where a zoned area applies, it stays outside it unless your own assessment says otherwise.
How a Pilot Starts
We supply the iPads, configured and locked to this one application, so nothing else runs on them and no personal device is involved. Your manuals are loaded at handover or pulled from a site manual pack. A pilot is scoped to one depot or one site, with a written risk-assessment annex and a data protection assessment naming your organisation as the controller, because the honest version of this conversation starts with what the software is not.