Impact
Echo via Portable Impact-Echo System (PIES)

PIES,
our revolutionary Portable Impact-Echo System is an advanced instrument
for non-destructive detection of flaws and defects in a variety
of civil infrastructures ranging from bridges, parking structures
and buildings to dams, piles, tunnels, tanks and marine structures.
Capable
of inspecting coarse-grain based materials including concrete, masonry
and grout, PIES is able to successfully detect flaws such as delaminations,
honeycombing, and voids. Not only does it meet and exceed with ASTM
C1383, PIES is capable of measuring through sections as thick as
10m (30ft) or as thin as 0.05m (2in). PIES can estimate the uniaxial
compressive strength, static and dynamic elastic moduli and Poisson’s
ratio of concrete samples.
PIES
Impact Echo System can determine the degree of micro-cracking in
concrete elements and structures at early stages, preventing the
extension of damage caused by AAR, freeze-and-thaw or various chemical
and environmental attacks. Controlled by an iPAQ Pocket PC, which
allows for its light weight and ease of use, the standard PIES kit
also includes two Piezo-electric sensors, steel impactors, two-channel
portable digitizer and Windows compatible software capable of graphing,
calculations and presenting for report creation.
PIES
Portable Impact Echo System offers unparalleled ease of use to test
structures using sonic stress waves. The operator taps the surface
of the material under test to create a stress wave, while holding
the receiving transducer against the surface. The equipment responds
to the waves generated and within a second, calculates the distance
travelled and hence the thickness of the material.
Each
test is normally taken in a grid pattern which can subsequently
be analyzed to highlight the presence of any anomalies.
Product
Innovations of Portable Impact Echo System:
1)
First implementation of integrated impact echo technique in a single
low cost portable system complying with ASTM C1383.
2) First implementation
of a practical electronically triggered multi impact head stress
wave generator with force and frequency controlled
3) Development
of mathematical algorithms for determination of the length of surface
opening cracks.
4) Development
of broadband (up to 100 kHz) piezo-electric transducers within special
casings for various applications that could be applied for the impact
echo technique, which do not require coupling and can be placed
on any type of surface.
5) Design and
develop a new digitizer that is small, low cost and performs signal
digitization at 1 G samples / sec rate. This would be the only signal
digitizer that can fit into a laptop or attached to a palmtop computer.
6) First Impact-Echo
instrument that will measure up to 9 meters thickness of concrete
and coarse grained structures using elastic wave echo principles.
Today’s systems are limited to 1 meter.
Concrete
NDT Test Main Page
For
further detailed product or pricing information about Portable Impact-Echo
System, please E-mail
us.
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