Paul K. Davidson: About the Author
WIS, Inc.

This article describes a new inspection technology for rapid, on-stream,quantitative examinations of piping under support areas. This portable production system has been in commercial operation in the major U.S. Gulf Coast refineries for the past two years.

EMATs (Electromagnetic Acoustic Transducers) have been used for over six years for field service inspection of in-service piping. Recent advances in technology have allowed us to inspect new types of on-stream piping.

During the past year, WIS has presented a number of papers about EMATs. The type of discussions that have followed the presentations has surprised us. The overall view of industry to EMATs has been: "Aren't EMATs still just a good lab tool? There aren't any commercial applications out there."