Princeton Junction, NJ - October 2008 - MISTRAS Group, Inc. has teamed up with the
Ohio Department of Transportation (
ODOT)
in their effort to improve state and local
bridges by highlighting their strategy at
three press conferences in Columbus,
Cincinnati and Cleveland.
Select steel bridges throughout Ohio will
have critical gusset plate condition testing
done with the Pocket
UT, the world's first
hand-held, battery powered C-scan imaging
system.
The Pocket
UT, when accompanied by an R-scan, uses ultrasonic testing techniques to gather thickness data
faster and display a graphical image to show areas of corrosion. The system runs on Windows CE and Pocket
UTWin for data acquisition, analysis, and archiving and has the capability to perform A, B, and C-scan imaging.
The data, retrieved by the two-pound unit, is stored on a 1GHz compact flash card that can be easily
transferred to a laptop computer.
Home to more than 42,000 bridges, Ohio requires more inspections on bridges than any other state. Trained
bridge inspectors currently use conventional thickness gages to take spot readings of aging and deterioration of
key areas like gusset plates in steel bridges.
With the addition of the Pocket
UT to
ODOT's bridge inspection and preservation program, inspectors will be
able to pinpoint divots and section loss in a fraction of the time unlike a typical gage used in bridge inspection.
This information is stored on the device as a permanent record for future reference and readings.
"The Pocket
UT is a huge time saver, because not only will it limit the amount of time we have to
inconvenience the public with the shutting down of bridges, but it allows us to receive better data, faster,"
said Michael Loeffler, an inspector for the Ohio
DOT. "Also, the less time our inspectors have to spend on a
bridge is a safety factor that cannot be measured. It's a win-win situation."
