Cover meter for locating plate dowels?

[CSTech]

Hi everyone. First time poster.

I've been looking for a cover meter or similar hand-held NDT device to locate dowels in concrete slabs on grade. The dowels are on saw-cut joints. The catch is that the dowels are usually plate dowels (as apposed to round dowels), and of the cover meters I have been able to try, they all do well on round dowels, but struggle to pick up plate dowels. They tend to pick up the small tie straps

Typically the dowels are around 75-100mm below the surface (ie mid way in a 150-200mm thick slab).

Does anyone have any experience with devices which can reliably locate plate dowels, or can anyone give any advice?

Cheers
Andrew

Andrew

http://www.getcracking.com.au

 

[rscassar]

A zircon videoscanner has good reviews by other posters on this forum. thread507-241574

There is also the profoscope which is meant to be a good piece of equipment.

http://www.profoscope.com/

A sales rep scanned the columns and slab in our building with good results (I had a set of structural drawings of the building).

I got a quote on the profoscope from a supplier of testing equipment (

http://www.pcte.com.au/)

for $4500AUD about a year ago now. I didn't purchase the product.

 

[Ron]

A Profometer in depth mode should work fine.

 

[CSTech]

kikflip, it was actually the Projoscope that we tried. We had a PCTE sales rep come and demo it and he couldn't get it to reliably pick up the plate dowels. I think it may have been getting confused by the wire 'cradle' that holds the dowels and/or the shape of the dowel being flat rather than the round shape it expects. (Picture attached of dowel cradles used) We were quoted about the same price as you for the profoscope.

The zircon videoscanner is listed online for about $35 so I guess I have not much to loose by trying it out.

The concrete was quite young (2-3 days old i from memory). Can this affect the results? The rep had an x-ray scanning device with him which also didn't work. He seemed to think this was because of the high moisture content of the slab.

Ron, the Profometer is probably more expensive than we would like to pay. From memory it was 3-4 times more expensive than the profometer.

Andrew
www.getcracking.com.au

 

[Ron]

CSTech...I assume you work for "getcracking"...If so, you're in the business...spend the money and get something that works. If will save you time, money, and credibility (which is worth more than the rest!)

 

[CSTech]

Thanks for your response. I agree that if getting a more capable model such as the profoscope is what is required to detect plate dowels, then so be it. However, I don’t think we need most of the extra features that higher end models offer (such as logging, statistical analysis, data transfer to PC etc) so if there is something out there that will detect plate dowels reliably without paying for features we don’t need, then that would be ideal.

Andrew

http://www.getcracking.com.au

 

[Ron]

CSTech...there are plenty of used Profometers...Models 3,4 and 5 out there. Check eBay.

 

[Ussuri]

Hilti Ferroscan.

http://www.hilti.com/holcom/page/mo...7C0409360628017039.node2?lang=en&nodeId=-8167