Total Safety US Inc. has been granted regulatory exemption for commercial use of unmanned aircraft systems (UAS)—small drones—for operations involving the inspection of flare stacks, the company said in a release.

Total Safety said this makes it the only company approved to perform flare inspections on land using UAS. It is also one of just 24 companies throughout the U.S. granted exemption from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) drone restrictions for specific commercial use.

Flare maintenance is critical work that often requires expensive downtime from customers, but it's work that needs to be done routinely to ensure the safety of employees and facilities including plants, refineries, pipelines, tank batteries, drilling rigs, production rigs and in many manufacturing environments.

Typically, when regular inspection and maintenance are conducted on a flare, that unit or system must be taken offline or a temporary flare must be used to bypass it. This could mean hours or days with reduced or no production.

Drone technology enables Total Safety to easily move around and above the flare to examine it while it's in operation.

Total Safety's drone technology is a two-person operation and much less expensive than the other methods, which often require three or more employees to perform the inspection.

For information visit Total Safety's website at totalsafety.com.