Ultrasonic Sound Detection Testing

[R Bob]

Has anyone heard of, or know anything about this? Is it legit?

I happened across this on the web site/s of a company that is either a franchise, network, or promoting a home electrical hazard detection process/procedure(I can't figure out which one it is).

The claim is that the integrity of concealed wiring(behind walls) can be assessed by using this method.

An excerpt:

Ultrasonic Sound Detection Testing

Feature: Ultrasound changes provide early warning of potential electrical fire hazards.

Benefit to Customer: The Ultraprobe senses high frequency sounds produced by electrical discharges such as "Corona", "Tracking" and "Arcing" that can't normally be heard with the human ear. The ultrasonic detector electronically translates these signals into an audible range so that a trained technician can hear these sounds through a headset and see them as intensity increments on the meter. Heterodyning works the same as a radio in that it accurately transforms the sounds so that they are recognized and diagnosed on the spot.

Any thoughts?

 

[brian john]

We use ultra sound and in a residential application we have benefited from it once in 24 years, and this was in a meter bank and in addition to the UE equipment we had to have a load bank to but load on the individual meters.

 

[S'mise]

No this is not a scam. Mechanics use these things to find things like bad bearings. Might be a streach to use it to find bad wiring because it would have to hear arcing. Of course, the manufacture/salesman will claim a wide application to sell their produst. Think of it as a glorified precesion microphone and amplifier. The problem is they pick up sounds/vibrations everywhere (distortion) And literally every sq inch of the home would need to be covered.

 

[drbond24]

Ultrasonic testing in general is a widely used and accepted method of testing and monitoring mechanical equipment. We use it to listen for boiler leaks in the power plant and test valves to determine if they are leaking and even how much they are leaking.

I've never heard of using this technology on electrical wires, and I must say that I'm skeptical. I'm curious enough to dig into it some more, though.

 

[R Bob]

We use ultra sound and in a residential application we have benefited from it once in 24 years, and this was in a meter bank and in addition to the UE equipment we had to have a load bank to but load on the individual meters.

Brian,

Since this concept, as applied to electrical testing, is unexplored territory for me, i'm left with several questions:

In the example you gave, what condition presented itself that prompted you to perform ultra sound testing?

Is this a front line diagnostic procedure?

What are the parameters used to institute this method?

Sorry about all of the questions, I'm just very curious.
I have apparently lived a very sheltered existence in the electrical industry, since I have never heard of this method applied to electrical testing.

 

[zog]

We do ultrasonic testing but only on MV and HV systems, would be a complete waste of time for LV. You wont get any corona or discharge at <2400V or so.

 

[R Bob]

We do ultrasonic testing but only on MV and HV systems, would be a complete waste of time for LV. You wont get any corona or discharge at <2400V or so.

Thanks Zog,

Other than a brand of beer, the only time I ever hear the term "corana" used is in association with HV/MV connections.

 

[brian john]

In the once case we had it was a large meter bank and units were losing power. We tried without load then utilizing a load bank. In the end IMO we'd been better off just totally disassembling the meter stack Which was very labor intensive.

This stuff was junk (as most meter stacks seem to be) we found numerous loose neutral connections located behind the meters, the hardest place to get at.

 

[LarryFine]

Is there anything this device would disclose that an IR scan wouldn't?

 

[R Bob]

Is there anything this device would disclose that an IR scan wouldn't?

The web site also promotes thermographic imaging as a component of a total inspection package. I can actually comprehend some benefit to this. However, I wasn't really "feeling" the ultra sound thing (and didn't know anything about it either).

Checking connections/splices, grounding, voltage, ampacity, capacity and proper wire sizes are some the other components.

No suggestion to megger for some reason:-?

I'll PM you the link, and post it on the forum if the MODS think it's OK.

 

[ptonsparky]

This was a few years ago but I seem to remember that one of the leak detectors that were available for refrigeration had a "problem" with picking up loose connections. Small hand held detector that was still $100 over what I had at the time.

 

[zog]

Is there anything this device would disclose that an IR scan wouldn't?

Corona discharge, this is for MV/HV systems. IR scans dont tell you much on those systems, not any(OK, very little) heat generated from corona.

 

[benaround]

They say it will pick up the Northern lights from mid Alaska.