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Ultrasonic Electrical Surveys Detect Arcing, Tracking & Corona Discharge.
Airborne ultrasound hears the faults infrared cannot see — partial discharge on live switchgear, bearing wear on running plant, and every compressed air, gas, vacuum and steam leak bleeding money out of your site.
Protecting Your Assets Is Our Focus.
Highpoint Solutions provide airborne ultrasonic inspection services throughout Australia. With offices on the Sunshine Coast and Brisbane, we regularly service rural and remote areas throughout Queensland.
Airborne ultrasonic inspections are ideal for conducting; compressed air leak surveys, gas leak detection, steam trap surveys, condition monitoring of bearings, electrical inspections, identifying bearing lubrication issues, and un-pressurised leak detection.
- Arcing, tracking & corona discharge on live switchgear
- Partial discharge at low, medium and high voltage
- Compressed air leak surveys, costed per leak
- Gas, inert gas and vacuum system leak detection
- Steam trap testing and valve leak-by
- Bearing condition monitoring & lubrication faults
- Un-pressurised leak detection with a tone generator
- Seal integrity on hatches, doors, cabins and containers
The Advantages of Ultrasonic Surveys are Clear.
Ultrasound from an ultrasonic survey is very directional and can be easily blocked or shielded. Ultrasound from an ultrasonic survey instrument can be used in noisy environments. Changes in the ultrasonic signature provide an early warning of potential problems or hazards. Ultrasonic scanning performed by our experienced ultrasonic technicians provide another valuable tool for your preventative and predictive maintenance programs.
That directionality is the whole point. Audible plant noise sits below about 20 kHz; the friction, turbulence and electrical discharge we are looking for produce sound well above it. Filtering out everything a human ear can hear leaves a signal that can be pinpointed to a single fitting from across a plant room, on a running site, without shutting anything down.
Infrared shows you heat that has already been generated. Ultrasound hears the fault while it is still only making a noise.
How We Add Value To Your Business Using Ultrasonic Equipment.
We use state-of-the-art airborne ultrasound equipment to identify; electrical faults, mechanical faults, compressed air leaks, and bearing lubrication issues, allowing you to take corrective actions to minimise damage to plant/equipment and decrease repair costs. We'll physically show you what you can't hear!
Saving time – One of the many benefits of ultrasonic inspections is there's no down-time required. Our non-destructive, non-intrusive inspection methods allow your daily operations to continue unaffected by our work.
Ultrasound inspection is a valuable tool for predictive and preventive maintenance, energy management and quality control.
Periodic monitoring of plant and equipment allows us to establish trends which are used to predict equipment failure. This invaluable data allows your preventative maintenance team to carry out upgrades and maintenance tasks in a "planned" window, rather than an unplanned outage resulting in a loss of revenue and production.
What we listen for
Electrical assets
- Arcing across a gap or a loose connection
- Tracking — current creeping across a contaminated or damaged insulator
- Corona discharge ionising the air around HV conductors
- Partial discharge inside switchgear, terminations and cable joints
- Faults screened through cabinet vents and door seams without opening the panel
Mechanical & rotating plant
- Bearing wear detected long before it appears in vibration data
- Under- and over-lubrication, with grease applied to the reading
- Gear mesh and coupling problems
- Cavitation and turbulent flow in pumps and valves
- Steam trap condition — blowing through, cycling or cold
Ultrasound is not a replacement for vibration analysis or thermography — it finds the faults those methods are blind to. On switchgear, infrared sees resistance heating at a loose joint; ultrasound hears discharge that generates almost no heat at all. On a bearing, vibration analysis characterises a defect that already exists; ultrasound flags the lubrication problem that is about to create one. This service sits inside our wider inspection & NDT capability and is routinely delivered alongside electrical thermal imaging on the same site visit.
Ultrasonic Inspections For Compressed Air Leak Detection
Since air leaks are almost impossible to see, other methods must be used to locate them. The best way to detect leaks is to use an ultrasonic acoustic air leak detector, which can recognize the high frequency hissing sounds associated with air leaks. These portable leak detectors units consist of directional microphones, amplifiers, and audio filters, and usually have either visual indicators or earphones to detect leaks.
Why carry out compressed air leak detection within you work place or factory? These leaks can be a significant source of wasted compressed air energy within your compressed air system, in some cases wasting unto 20-30% of a compressor's output. A typical plant that has not been well maintained will likely have a leak rate equal to 20% of total compressed air production capacity. On the other hand, proactive leak detection and repair can reduce leaks to less than 10% of compressor output.
As well as a source of wasted energy, compressed air leaks can also contribute to other losses. These could include a drop in system pressure, which can make production equipment function less efficiently, adversely affecting production, shorten the life of components within the air compressors as well as adding additional run hours to your equipment, leading to more frequent servicing costs.
A good air leak prevention program will include the following components: identification, photographing (and tagging), verification severity of the leak, and calculate the annual cost. Highpoint Solutions can assist by providing an Ultrasonic Air leak prevention program should you be looking at not only reducing the overall run costs associated with your compressed air system but improve the efficiency, reliability, stability and cost effectiveness of your compressed air system.
Compressed air & steam leak cost calculator
We built a calculator specifically to support this service. Put in your leak count, typical leak size, operating hours and electricity rate and it returns the annual cost of the leaks, the compressor power being wasted, the CO₂ equivalent and the payback period on a survey. It works for steam as well as air. Most sites are surprised by the number, which is the point — the survey almost always costs less than a single quarter of leakage.
Steam traps, valves and leak-by
A failed steam trap is invisible, silent to the ear and expensive. Blowing straight through, it passes live steam to condensate return continuously; failed shut, it waterlogs the line and destroys heat transfer. Ultrasound tests a trap in place, in service, in under a minute — and combined with a surface temperature reading it separates a trap that is cycling correctly from one that is passing.
- Trap-by-trap survey with pass / fail / monitor status
- Blow-through losses costed per trap per year
- Valve leak-by on isolation, bypass and control valves
- Vacuum system integrity — ultrasound works on leaks flowing inward
- Heat exchanger and condenser tube leak location
- Baseline established so the next survey trends against this one
Pressurised systems
- Compressed air rings, drops and point-of-use fittings
- Inert gas, nitrogen and process gas lines
- Steam, condensate and traps
- Vacuum systems — leaks flowing inward are heard just as clearly
- Each leak tagged, photographed and costed per year
Un-pressurised & gas imaging
- Tone generator placed inside the enclosure, scanned from outside
- Hatch covers, ducts, cabins, containers and tank roofs
- Wind and water seal failure on building façades
- Optical gas imaging for hydrocarbon and fugitive emissions
- Findings integrated with our wider leak detection service
Where a leak is not under pressure, an ultrasonic tone generator is placed inside the enclosure and the outside scanned for the point the tone escapes — the same technique that finds a wind and water seal failure on a building façade, which is why this capability underpins much of our leak detection work as well.
Airborne ultrasound surveys WILL save you money and unplanned downtime.
Highpoint Solutions offers electrical inspections using ultrasound testing at all voltages; low, medium and high voltages that can help prevent equipment failure and avoid costly downtime. Ask us about our electrical thermography services.
Scope and baseline
We agree the asset list, the access requirements and the permit conditions, then record a baseline decibel reading at each test point so future surveys are comparable.
Survey in service
Plant stays running and boards stay live. Nothing is dismantled, nothing is de-energised, and your operations continue unaffected.
Classify and record
Every finding is photographed, tagged, given a severity and, for leaks, costed. Sound files are captured so a spectrum can be reviewed later.
Report and re-test
The report is issued within one business day. After rectification we re-test to confirm the fault is gone and the saving is real.
Combine ultrasound & infrared thermography for enhanced data reliability.
Airborne ultrasound is used extensively for condition monitoring, energy conservation and quality assurance programs in mechanical plants, throughout the world. Infrared thermography is the perfect partner for ultrasonic inspection.
Run together on the same visit, the two methods cover each other's blind spots and cost far less than two separate mobilisations. Our thermographer is ISO 18436-7 Category 2 certified (PCN 342706), and where the assets are at height or otherwise hard to reach, the same crew are IRATA-certified rope access technicians — so the inspector is the person on the rope and no access contractor is required.
Highly accurate & reliable data packaged into an easy to digest and detailed report.
On completion of our ultrasonic inspection, we will produce a detailed report within 24hrs!
We offer a nationwide service and can be on site at most places throughout Australia within 48hrs from initial contact.
Reports list every finding with its location, photograph, decibel reading, severity and recommended action — and for leak surveys, the estimated annual cost of each leak so your maintenance team can repair in priority order. Findings are logged against your asset register so each survey trends against the last.
Common questions
Does the plant need to be shut down?
No — the opposite. Ultrasound needs the asset to be in service: boards live, compressors running, steam up, bearings turning. That is what makes it a genuinely non-intrusive condition monitoring method.
Do you have to open the switchboard?
Usually not. Ultrasound escapes through cabinet vents, door seams and cable entries, so most partial discharge screening is done with the panel closed. Where a scope calls for an open-panel inspection it is planned with your electrical safety procedures and carried out alongside thermography.
How is this different from vibration analysis?
Vibration analysis characterises a bearing defect that already exists. Ultrasound detects the friction and lubrication change that precedes it, typically far earlier in the failure curve, and it works on slow-speed bearings where vibration data is difficult to interpret.
How many leaks will you find?
More than you expect. A manufacturing site that has never had a survey commonly runs a leak rate around 20% of compressed air production. The leak cost calculator will give you a realistic annual figure before you commit to anything.
Where do you travel?
Based at Eumundi on the Sunshine Coast, we work throughout Queensland as standard — including rural and remote sites — and Australia-wide on request, generally on site within 48 hours of initial contact.