Sounding Out the Signal: Hull Thickness Gauges used in Marine Surveying
If you’ve ever seen a marine surveyor wandering around a boatyard or drydock tapping a hammer against a hull you’ve witnessed one of the time tested hull inspection methods. Over time additional tools have entered the market to provide additional data points to build a picture of a vessel's overall condition. After the hammer came the moisture meter and now thickness gauges for both alloy and fiber reinforced plastic (FRP). If a piece of steel demonstrates corrosion, everyone always wants to know how much material is left. That’s where Ultrasonic Thickness (UT) Gauges come in. Equipped with ultrasound technology, these handheld tools allow us to "see" through solid material without drilling a single test hole or destroying custom paint jobs. But using them effectively on a marine survey requires understanding both the physics of sound waves and the quirks of different hull materials. Here is a picture of our new gauge! Image taken by our surveyor (b...