Ultrasonic Thickness Testing
An ultrasonic thickness gauge is a hand-held electronic device that tells the user the remaining thickness of the material being tested. This technique is most relevant when the user only has access to one side of the material.
A probe is placed on to the material and the gauge then works by precisely measuring how long it takes for a sound pulse that has been generated by the probe to travel through that material – and reflect back from the inside surface. From this measurement, the thickness of the material is calculated and displayed on screen.
Thickness measurements using ultrasound are extremely accurate; a huge range of materials can be measured; and UT gauges can measure a wide variety of thicknesses (from just a few tenths of a millimetre to half a metre or more).
A periodic preventative maintenance schedule that uses UT gauges to regularly inspect for corrosion can allow facilities to plan for downtime or even to avoid it altogether – if an issue is identified and subsequently rectified early enough.
Simplicity of Multiple-Echo
Cygnus Instruments designs and manufactures their full range of products in the UK and their UT gauges are known the world over because of their unique ultrasonic technique known as “multiple-echo”. This technique has one enormous time and money saving benefit; there is no need to remove any coatings from the material being measured. The multiple-echo technique will in fact ignore coatings which means that no time is spent removing them and no money spent re-applying them.
The Cygnus 4+ UT gauge also comes equipped with a data-logging feature that allows the user to monitor assets within the facility over time; this should allow for maintenance to be pre-planned and timetabled conveniently because the asset’s end of life can be predicted – and therefore, could save time and money.
Explosive Environments
Also available from Cygnus is the world’s only ultrasonic thickness gauge that has been certified intrinsically safe to the highest (safest) possible ATEX and IECEx ratings; this makes it the number 1 choice for all engineers working within potentially explosive environments – such as soy and flour production.
Certified intrinsically safe to Class 1, Div 1 (“Zone 0”) for ATEX, IECEx and CSA-US means that the Cygnus 1 Intrinsically Safe thickness gauge is ideal for use in Zone 0, Zone 1 hazardous areas and requires no shutdown or “hot work permit”.
To find out more information, visit www.cygnus-instruments.com
Alternatively, call us on +44 (0) 1305 265533 or email [email protected]
