Technical Brief

Teletest Focus uses the MultimodeTM system which

Teletest Inspects the allowed the inspection of this finned tube using both
Impossible torsional and longitudinal wavemodes. It was found
that the torsional and longitudinal wavemodes were
Teletest is a long-range ultrasonic or Guided Wave affected in very different ways by the geometry of the
NDT Technique developed for detecting metal loss in pipe.
pipe-work.

It is a pulse-echo system aimed at testing large

volumes of material from a single test point. Its initial
application was for detecting corrosion under
insulation in petrochemical plant pipe-work, but it has
found widespread use in other inspection situations
where pipes or tubes are not accessible, for example
where they are buried, encased in a sleeve or
elevated above the ground.

Recently Plant Integrity was called to trial Teletest to

inspect finned tubes in the Middle East. These tubes
The propagation torsional waves were significantly
are subject to severe corrosion and are notoriously
inhibited by the radial fins along the tube length. This
difficult to inspect due to the fins preventing direct
made the detection of the pipe end impossible and
access for conventional NDT probes and internal
the noise of the pipe high.
tools being expensive and impractical to use.
Longitudinal wave-mode was relatively unaffected by
the radial fins making the data much clearer. With this
wave-mode the response from the pipe end was
easily seen as was the defect at between 3 and 4m.

A defect was ground into the centre of the pipe and

the Teletest Focus tool used to see if this could be
detected.
This highlights the advantage of having a
MultimodeTM system on the same tool as standard.
This ensures that the operator is collecting Guided
Wave data with the optimum wave-mode in any
situation.

A bespoke longitudinal tool is now being developed to

be able to inspect these pipes in-situ, negating the
need for each pipe to be removed from the furnace for
inspection. This has the potential to save the end-user
significant downtime.

Plant Integrity Ltd

Granta Park, Gt Abington, Cambridge CB21 6AL
T: +44 (0) 1223 893994 F: +44 (0) 1223 893944
info@plantintegrity.com
www.plantintegrity.com A TWI Group Company