ACS A1270 EMAT User manual

Electro-Magnetic Acoustic Thickness
Gauge
А1270
OPERATION MANUAL
Acoustic Control Systems Ltd.
Moscow 2016

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Operation manual
08.08.2016
Electro-Magnetic Acoustic Thickness Gauge A1270
Contents
1 DESCRIPTION AND INSTRUMENT OPERATION................................................5
1.1 PURPOSE OF THE INSTRUMENT............................................................................5
1.1.1 Purpose and application range....................................................................................5
1.1.2 Operating conditions...................................................................................................5
1.2 TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS................................................................................6
1.3 DESIGN AND OPERATION .......................................................................................7
1.3.1 Design.........................................................................................................................7
1.3.2 Operation principle.....................................................................................................9
1.3.3 Operation modes.........................................................................................................9
1.3.4 Display......................................................................................................................10
1.3.5 Keypad......................................................................................................................15
2 PROPER USE...............................................................................................................18
2.1 OPERATING RESTRICTIONS .................................................................................18
2.2 MAKING THE INSTRUMENT READY FOR OPERATION..................................18
2.2.1 Connecting the transducers.......................................................................................18
2.2.2 Switching On/Off the instrument..............................................................................18
2.2.3 Configuring and adjusting the instrument to the parameters of the EMAT being
used....................................................................................................................................19
2.3 WORKING WITH THE INSTRUMENT...................................................................22
2.3.1 Working with the instrument....................................................................................22
2.3.2 SETUP mode ............................................................................................................22
2.3.3 The MEMORY mode ...............................................................................................48
2.3.4 The А-SCAN mode ..................................................................................................51
2.4 DOING MEASUREMENTS.......................................................................................56
2.4.1 Functional check-out of the instrument during inspection .......................................57
2.5 DATA TRANSFER TO PC.........................................................................................57
3 TECHNICAL MAINTENANCE ................................................................................59
3.1 ACCUMULATOR ......................................................................................................59
3.2 CHARGING THE ACCUMULATOR........................................................................59
3.3 TROUBLESHOOTING ..............................................................................................59
4 STORAGE.....................................................................................................................60
5 TRANSPORTATION...................................................................................................61

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Operation manual
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Electro-Magnetic Acoustic Thickness Gauge A1270
Current Operation Manual (hereinafter referred to as "the operation manual") contains
technical specifications, description, and operation principle of the А1270 Electro-Magnetic
Acoustic Thickness Gauge (hereinafter referred to as “the thickness gauge" or "the instrument"),
as well as information required for proper operation of the instrument.
Carefully read this operation manual before starting to work with the instrument.
Only the personnel familiar with general principles of the ultrasound waves propagation,
having completed a corresponding training, and having read the operation documentation is
allowed to work with the instrument.
The inspection tasks must be determined, the inspection schemes must be selected, the
transducers must be chosen and inspection conditions for such materials must be evaluated, etc.
for correct ultrasonic inspection.
During production of the instrument some modifications can be introduced to it due to
constant improvement of its reliability and serviceability that do not affect the technical
specifications of the instrument and thus are not described in the present operation manual.
Manufacturer:
Acoustic Control Systems” Limited Liability Company
Russia, 115598, Moscow, Zagoryevskaya strt.,10. b.4
Phone/fax: [phone] (multichannel phone)
E-mail: [email protected]
Website: http://acsys.ru

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Operation manual
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Electro-Magnetic Acoustic Thickness Gauge A1270
1DESCRIPTION AND INSTRUMENT OPERATION
1.1 PURPOSE OF THE INSTRUMENT
1.1.1 Purpose and application range
The instrument is a general purpose hand-held ultrasound thickness gauge.
The instrument is designed for measurement of thickness of parts and walks of steel tubes
and objects made of steel and metal alloys not using coupling fluids; ultrasonic thickness
measurements of flat rolled stock; ultrasonic thickness measurements of the ship bottom without
pretreatment of the surface; evaluation of anisotropy degree of the material.
The instrument can be used under the laboratory, field and workshop conditions in
various industries.
The A-SCAN mode allows elimination of false readings, thus substantially increasing
inspection reliability, express-searches for foreign inclusions and laminations, as well as getting
true results of measuring through polymeric, varnish and paint and other types of insulated
coating.
The instrument allows rotation of the image layout by 90orightwards and leftwards in the
operation modes.
Measurement results can be recorded into the instrument's memory and further
transferred to PC for procession, analysis and storage.
The instrument communicates with PC via the USB port.
1.1.2 Operating conditions
The instrument is designed to work under the following conditions:
ambient air temperature range from -30 to +50 С;
relative air humidity up to 95 % at +35 С.

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Electro-Magnetic Acoustic Thickness Gauge A1270
1.2 TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS
Main technical specifications of the instrument are presented in Table 1.
Table 1
Parameter name
Value
Range of the thickness for measurement with the
S3850 5.0A0D8ES transducer, mm
from 0.6 to 50.0
Limits of permissible absolute measurement error of
thickness,
where His the thickness being measured
±(0.01·H+0.1)
Indication discreteness of thickness, mm:
for thickness values up to 99.99 mm
0.01; 0.1
for thickness values from 100.0 mm
0.1
Setting range of ultrasound velocity, m/s
from 1 000 to
9 999
Setting range of operation frequencies, MHz
from 2.5 to 5.0
Power source
accumulator
Nominal voltage of accumulator, V
13.2
Period of continuous operation of the instrument powered by
the accumulator under normal climatic conditions, no less than
9 h
Overall dimensions of the electronic unit, no more than
190 87 40 mm
Maximum weight of the electronic unit
900 g
Mean time between failures
18000 h
Average service life, no less than
5 years

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Electro-Magnetic Acoustic Thickness Gauge A1270
1.3 DESIGN AND OPERATION
1.3.1 Design
The instrument represents an electronic unit (Figure 1) to which replaceable
electromagnetic acoustic transducers (EMAT) shall be cable-connected. The upper and lower
end faces of the instrument are enclosed with rubber plugs.
Figure 1
A color TFT display is located in the upper part of the face panel of the electronic unit.
The display shows measurement results and operation information required for control over the
instrument. The display provides a complete visual control over the measurement process via the
color-coded indication.
A membrane keypad under the display allows control over the instrument.
The upper end face of the electronic unit bears a connector for EMAT, and the D16Т
calibration sample 5 mm thick made of aluminum alloy D16Т. Propagation velocity of

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ultrasound waves in the calibration sample is 3120 m/s. The sample is meant for adjustment of
the instrument to the connected EMAT, as well as for prompt evaluation of the instrument
performance (Figure 2).
Figure 2
The lower end face of the electronic unit bears a brace for the belt, USB Micro B
connector meant for connection of the USB communication cable to PC, and a connector for
connection/disconnection of the power adapter to charge the built-in instrument's accumulator
(Figure 3).
N o t e –Measurements are impossible during charging.

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Electro-Magnetic Acoustic Thickness Gauge A1270
Figure 3
The "Micro B" connector of the USB cable shall be connected by the symbol
and/or the "B" letter facing upward (Figure 4).
Figure 4
1.3.2 Operation principle
Instrument's operation principle represents measurement of time of double traverse of
ultrasonic waves through the object being inspected from one surface to another, which is further
recalculated into the thickness value.
EMAT is used to emit the ultrasonic pulses into the object being inspected and receive
the reflected pulses. EMAT shall be installed on the surface of the object being inspected in the
place where the thickness shall be measured. EMAT has a pointed directional characteristic of
irradiation direction and ultrasound reception, hence the thickness can be measured just below
the installation place of the transducer. Provided the surface opposite to the surface with the
EMAT installed has some cavities, the ultrasound pulses will be reflected from them and the
thickness will be determined as the shortest distance from the external surface to these cavities.
1.3.3 Operation modes
The operation modes of the thickness gauge are as follows:
in the measurement mode with a representation of the recorded results –
MEMORY;
in the measurement mode with a graphical representation of the signal –
А-SCAN;
in the mode so settings and selection of the measurement parameters –
SETUP.
The instrument allows recording of the results into its memory when operated in any
measurement mode.
In the MEMORY mode the thickness gauge allows prompt detection of thickness of the
object being inspected; it allows the operator to view the recorded measurement results on the

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display, edit the recordings doing additional measurements and record the data obtained into the
correctable memory cells.
The A-SCAN mode allows elimination of false readings caused by presence of
discontinuities in the material of the object being inspected. In this mode the signals are
displayed in the form of A-SCAN, and measurement conditions and criteria are determined
directly during the operation. Four measurement ways are possible: by the first signal exceeding
the strobe threshold, by the maximum signal in the strobe, between two maximum signals in the
strobe and ACF by the strobe. This mode as well allows viewing the selected sections of the
signal, current parameters and settings, recording of the A-SCAN image together with the
measurement result.
The SETUP mode allows adjustment of the required measurement conditions and
parameters. A set of the editable parameters consists of the general parameters (common for all
modes) and parameters proprietary for each separate measurement mode.
1.3.4 Display
In all operation modes the upper line on the instrument's display indicates information on
the current operation mode of the instrument and its accumulator charge level. Table 2 lists the
types of the icons of the operation mode tabs.
Table 2
Tab
Operation mode
MEMORY
A-SCAN
SETUP
The icons of the measurement modes always go from left to right as follows: MEMORY–
А-SCAN, at that an icon of the active mode is highlighted (Figure 5).
Figure 5
On entry into the SETUP mode its icon will be displayed instead of the icon of the
previous mode, the parameters and settings of the mode will become editable (Figure 6).