Designed for the Real World of Industrial Inspection – How ScanTech Scanners Overcome the Toughest NDT Challenges
In the field of nondestructive testing and industrial inspection, challenges come in all shapes and sizes—literally. From high-profile welds to rough surfaces that can tip delicate probes, the conditions are often far from perfect. But at ScanTech, we understand these challenges better than most. That’s because our scanning systems are designed by people who’ve worked in the trenches of NDT. They’ve experienced the frustration of equipment that doesn’t perform in the real world, and they’ve used that experience to create solutions that stand up to the toughest environments.
Anti-Tip Probe Holder: A Real-World Solution
One of the most frustrating issues NDT professionals face with robotic scanners is the lack of even, constant surface contact of ultrasonic testing (UT) probes in remote mechanical probe holding gimbals. When scanning across rough or uneven surfaces, gimbal-type probe holders tend to slightly lift on the trailing edge, causing inaccurate readings, coupling issues, and wasted time. In some situations or on certain geometries, this can result in complete signal loss, or the probe gimbal can completely tip over.
ScanTech’s patented anti-tip probe holder is designed to solve this exact issue. The holder allows enough movement for the probe to adapt to the surface but eliminates the rotational tipping force, keeping the probe flat on the surface. This results in more reliable UT data, less time wasted on re-scanning, and increased efficiency overall. It’s a feature praised by countless NDT professionals who’ve experienced the difference first-hand.
Gear-Driven Drive Units for Durability and Power
Another common issue with many scanners is durability, particularly in the drive systems. Belt-driven crawlers often face belt breaks, and chain drives can rust and bind, leading to frequent repairs and downtime.
ScanTech addressed this by designing all gear-driven drive sections for our crawlers with proprietary compound gears.
Why Are the Compound Gears Important?
When other scanning systems on the market use gears in the drive train, it’s common to attach standard gears to a shaft using set screws or shaft clamps, which can lead to slippage. Additionally, many gear trains and most commercially offered gear reducers utilize the same size gear tooth from the input to the output. Gear tooth breakage often occurs near the output, where the torque has been multiplied beyond the strength of the tooth.
By designing proprietary compound gears, ScanTech can manufacture each gear stage with a tooth profile sized according to the required strength at each stage, resulting in a virtually “bulletproof” drive train.
Additionally, each set of compound gears is machined from one piece of billet steel along with the shaft, making coupling slippage impossible. We machine and refine each gear to withstand the toughest conditions, providing more torque, speed, and reliability. The result? A drive system that lasts longer, requires fewer repairs, and keeps you scanning when other systems would fail on the job site.
High Suspension “Off-Roading” for Uneven Surfaces
When working on tanks, pipes, or other large structures using certain types of scanners, it’s not uncommon to encounter tall welds, lap seams, or rivets. Many designs used in these cases can “high-center” on these obstacles, losing traction and sometimes getting stuck. Under these applications, a wheel suspension design is required to allow all driven wheels to maintain contact with the surface for traction and adhesion, similar to the requirements of off-road vehicles. Many scanners on the market utilize a more basic design with no wheel compliance to follow the surface.
ScanTech’s scanners for these applications are designed with high-compliance drive wheel travel, which allows them to easily go over tall welds and other obstacles that would stop other systems in their tracks. This not only improves scanning accuracy but also makes the system much more versatile in real-world NDT applications.
Designed by NDT Professionals, for NDT Professionals
What sets ScanTech apart from the competition is that our systems are designed by people who have real-world NDT experience. Our team has faced the same challenges you face in the field, and they’ve used that knowledge to develop scanners that work where it matters—on the job.
Whether it’s a high-compliance vehicle to maintain contact while going over obstacles and tall welds, the anti-tip probe holder for better probe contact, or the durable, gear-driven drive sections, every feature of ScanTech’s scanning systems is built to tackle the real-world challenges of NDT. We don’t simply take already-built robotic systems and retrofit them with NDT equipment, which may or may not be suited for the industrial inspection environment.
At ScanTech, we understand that accurate, efficient NDT isn’t just about having the latest technology. It’s about having equipment that works in the field the first time, day in and day out. That’s why we go the extra mile to ensure that our scanners are not only cutting-edge but also practical, reliable, and built to last.
