In the November 2007 issue, Advanced Materials & Processes Magazine covered Material Technologies’ Electrochemical Fatigue Sensor. The system has the ability to identify growing fatigue cracks in bridges as well as other metal structures.
The Electrochemical Fatigue Sensor contains a differential EFS sensor array, data collection hardware and data interpretation software. This unique technology is the only nondestructive field-testing device that is able to find growing cracks that can be as small as 0.01 inches long. The information provided by the device is crucial as it allows structural engineers to isolate problems and repair bridges.
The market for the device is huge. In the United States alone there are 190,000 metal bridges, 39,000 of which are structurally deficient while another 35,000 are functionally obsolete. On the most part bridge inspections are done visually via binoculars at a distance. This conventional method can completely miss more than 90% of the fatigue cracks according to the Federal Highway Administration.
Robert M. Bernstein, MATECH’s CEO, says, “MATECH has performed more than twenty-five inspections on highway and railroad bridges around the country, and we have every confidence that our EFS can save significant repair and rehabilitation dollars by its timely use, as well as avoiding lane and bridge closures which can have a devastating effect on the regional economy, not to mention avoiding potential tragedies of bridge failures.”
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