Ultrasonic boost to NDT inspection fleet
16/10/2013
As part of a strategy to create a ‘Centre of Excellence’ in non-destructive testing (NDT) equipment, Ashtead Technology has added the latest ultrasonic inspection technology to its fleet of rental instruments.The ‘USM Go’ combines a thickness gauge and a flaw detector in one single lightweight instrument and is available for hire with optional thickness and flaw kits. This means that NDT personnel now only need to carry one inspection instrument to perform accurate and dependable thickness measurement and flaw detection. A further benefit of this dual modality is a significant reduction in operator training times.
Whilst the USM Go is capable of highly-sophisticated measurements, it has been designed for simplicity. There is little need to refer to the manual; clear instructions are provided via the graphical user interface (GUI) and navigation is simplified with an innovative joystick, allowing one-handed operation for fast and accurate adjustment – the unit can also be flipped for left- or right-handed operation.Precise time-of-flight is indicated in μs and an automatic gate threshold for the two gates ensures highly accurate and reproducible measurements, and a back-wall echo (BWE) attenuator helps to identify low-amplitude reflections.
Small, lightweight, water, dust and shock proof, the USM Go is able to run for up to six hours on internal batteries.
Ashtead Technology’s Non-Destructive Testing (NDT) Market Manager, Neil Harrap, says: “With a broad range of extremely useful features such as inspection data recording, the USM Go is an important addition to our rental fleet. The flexibility of this instrument makes it ideal for a diverse range of inspection applications, including industrial engineering, metal fabrication, railway, aerospace, power generation, petrochemical and the automotive sector.”
www.ashtead-technology.com
