To the steam teams out there:

we are about to purchase a ultra sound unit for our group, we need to do a ultrasound on one of our boilers.

we would like to know what make and model that you are using so we can get idea of what we should be looking at. as we have 4 steam engines to care for we feel that this is a worth while expense and want the one that will best serve us.

Pete
Swanton Pacific Railroad

There is a maker of ultrasonic thickness testers in Scotts Valley which is near your location. Dakota Ultrasonics 831-431-9722. The make a complete line of hand held testers. I have there model MVX which is hand head and has a Visal A/B Scan and also number reading . it cost over $2500.00 It has all the bells and whistles and will give you much data and is fully programable.Having the visal scan of the UT waveform is a real plus. But this tester is harder to use compared to a simple thickness tester that just gives a numberic thickness reading. E-mail me as I could possibly loan you group a tester as I have one of the sample ones also

I can't help you on what brand or type to buy or use, but I do make the suggestion that your people train on how to use it properly. There are appearently many different types of testers out there. The reading will be only as good as the person doing the testing and that person needs to know how to use the equipment properly. I know this sounds so obvious, but there have been instances where incorrect readings were made or used and later on a lot of rework needed to be done because of it. Very important point in MHO. I know of one individual who chose to hire it out to a professional testing outfit. His reasoning was that when the FRA looked at the results they would know it was done professionally. It may or may not of been necessary, but the point I am trying to make is "make sure your readings get done accurately and done by one who is trained to use the tester being used". It can save many headaches down the road. Cheers, John.