GE releases pulsed eddy current test instrument

Edited by the Manufacturingtalk editorial team Sep 17, 2008

The GE Pulsec from GE Sensing and Inspection Technologies is a compact, battery-powered, non-destructive test instrument.

It uses pulsed eddy current (PEC) technology to provide diagnostic imaging with excellent depth resolution.

It features a handheld x-axis encoded array probe to allow rapid surface inspection and direct imaging of large areas.

Pulsed eddy current technology offers advantages over conventional eddy current.

Its drive coil is excited by a broadband impulse that is rich in low frequencies, meaning the range of transient eddy currents produced is also rich in low frequencies.

These lower frequencies penetrate more deeply into a test material.

The time-based information can be gated to present a layer-by-layer C-scan, which is much easier to interpret than conventional eddy current displays.

The wide frequency and depth range of the instrument is much greater than that associated with conventional eddy current, which means that more information is generated for post-processing or for further analysis.

There is no need to select a specific frequency for every inspection.

The single optimum frequency required for subsequent inspection of any corrosion or cracks detected by the initial Pulsec PEC scan can be easily identified and the relevant single element coil probe can be fitted to the instrument.

Pulsec is powered by a dual lithium-ion battery pack, with a charged life of 6 hours, or via a 100/240V AC supply.

It offers many of the operating features associated with conventional flaw detectors.

It has a high visibility TFT colour screen to provide high-quality imaging.

The internal memory of 1GB and hard disk of 80GB offer onboard real-time analysis, data recording and storage.

Data can be transferred via USB or Ethernet for post-data analysis and reports are generated with image capture at customer-selected intervals.

An advanced lift-off algorithm allows scanning in real-world situations such as variations in paint thickness, surface roughness and other causes of lift-off.