Magnetic Analysis Corporation’s has just expanded its line of Echomac® rotary ultrasonic test systems to handle 220 mm diameter tube and pipe, often used for OCTG applications. Prior models handled up to 180 mm diameter. Rotary ultrasonic systems have the advantage of allowing high throughput speeds combined with full body coverage.

The 220 mm Echomac seal-less rotary spins the UT transducers and water couplant at speeds up to 850 rpm about the tube as it is fed through the test. The seal-less design ensures minimum maintenance, and the shear wave transducer holders are designed to allow for easy and accurate reconfiguration for different diameter tube through a simple rotational adjustment of the transducer offset. The pulser electronics, located on the rotary, allow for very low noise signal processing as the transducer pulse and initial detection is accomplished close to the transducer before going through the rotary transformers to the Echomac FD-4 instrumentation.

The 220mm system uses Echomac FD-4 instrumentation with 14 transducer channels to detect longitudinal, transverse, and known angle oblique defects; wall thickness; ID/OD measurement and variations such as ovality. Using FD-4’s EchoHunter® software, each channel can be easily configured for any combination of thickness, dimensional measurement, and flaw detection. Features include simultaneous A-scan and strip chart display of all channels showing peak values of signals within each gate, and full network support for remote viewing and control. The flicker free A-scan captures non-repetitive events or flaws of short duration, even in very high speed UT scanning systems, typical of rotating transducer heads.

A recent computer controlled Echomac 220mm UT system shipped to a tube mill in India includes controls for sorting, marking, and adjusting the automatic test bench and all test and mechanical components to allow for variations in speed. The system for India also includes Rotoflux® transverse and longitudinal flux leakage tests that comply with API standards.