EMATS: A Technology Whose Time Has Come?

Definition

EMAT: electro-magnetic acoustic transducer. A non-contact transducer used to produce ultrasonic waves in test pieces.

I. Introduction

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.”

EMATs are a viable commercial inspection tool. They are now used in a wide variety of industries for everything from process control to field inspection. Most people were not aware of many of the commercial systems that date back to the mid and late 1980’s. Now many are aware and are starting to use the technology with some success.