TPT September 2009

T echnology U pdate

Portable, ultrasonic corrosion monitoring thickness gauges for improved stability

Protective coatings, including paint, contribute significant error to thickness measurements of underlying metal walls when using con- ventional methods. In addition, the removal of coatings, and their subsequent reapplication, involves considerable cost and time. The DM5E DL version has a built-in datalogger, with a capacity to store 50,000 readings in grid and linear files. This makes the measurement data available for further processing. Using GE’s UltraMATE software, measurement data files can easily be transferred from the instrument to a PC via a USB interface, for further analysis and storage. The Basic version can be simply upgraded into a DM5E instrument and both DM5E Basic and DM5E can be field-upgraded to become DL versions. GE Sensing & Inspection Technologies – UK Fax : +44 1727 795400 Email : david.jervis@ge.com Website : www.gesensinginspection.com Installations for the continuous induction heat treatment of tubes, bars and wires AN increasing role is being played by continuous induction heat treatments in the production of high quality steel pipes, according to ATE Applicazioni TermoElettroniche Srl, Italy. It says the process helps achieve high pro- duction rates with reduced installation space requirements, lower energy consumption and a better working environment. The company says ATE’s production programme offers: annealing furnaces of steel tubes, wires, strips, round and square section bars; annealing furnaces of non- ferrous tubes and wires (aluminium, copper, brass and precious alloys); hardening and tempering equipment for steel tubes, bars and wires; and localised heating of steel tubes and bars. ATE Applicazioni Termo Elettroniche Srl – Italy Fax : +39 0444 406434 Email : info@ate.it Website : www.ate.it

THE DM5E range is the latest generation of portable, ultrasonic, corrosion monitoring thickness gauges from GE Sensing & Inspection Technologies. It offers improvement in performance over previous corrosion thickness gauges in terms of better thickness measurement stability and repeatability at normal and, especially, at elevated temperatures. It has been designed for operation in the harshest of working environments, performing wall thickness measurements on pipelines, pressure vessels and storage tanks in the oil and gas industry, as well as the petrochemical and power generation sectors. The new corrosion measurement solution is available in three versions: the DM5E Basic, the DM5E and the DM5E DL. All versions weigh just 223g, including their AA batteries, which allow up to 60 hours of operation. They feature an LCD data display, which is backlit to be visible in all lighting conditions, and operation can be carried out with one hand via a user- friendly operator interface.

The sealed, watertight and dust-proof membrane keypad features a minimum of function keys and arrow keys. Navigation through the single level menu is simple and intuitive and the keypad allows access to all calibration, set-up and display modes. A range of displays is available, including normal, where thickness isdisplayeddigitally, Min Scan and Max Scan, where either the minimum thickness or the maximum thickness is displayed after the ultrasonic probe is passed over the wall surface being monitored, and B-scan, which is generated by measuring and recording at one point per second to create a B-scan graph showing thickness values graphically. The DM5E instrument additionally offers the dual multi-operating mode, which allows metal thickness to be measured through coatings.

 The DM5E series

ultrasonic thickness gauge

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S eptember 2009

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