Tendon Duct Locator
New Products
Drilling deeply into concrete can be a risky business; hitting a rebar is costly. But striking pre-stressing or post-tensioning tendons is dangerous.
Locating tendon ducts beneath the first two layers of reinforcement is an extremely difficult task. Cover meters and radar techniques have been tried before, but often with insufficient accuracy to achieve success. This is due to the screening effect of the nearer reinforcement, especially if close-meshed or heavily congested.
Protovale have now designed a borehole probe. The probe can be connected to a Rebar Plus rebar locator or CoverMaster CM52 cover meter (and eventually also the CM9 CoverMaster)
Once a CoverMaster or Rebar Plus has been used to locate a "safe spot" to drill, a small diameter (20mm) bore hole is drilled.
The slim probe is then inserted into the hole and the two sensor coils "look" both sideways and forwards.
By rotating the probe, information can be gained about steel lying below the nearer surface reinforcement. By increasing the depth of the borehole, and re-inserting the probe, it should be possible to reliably locate a third layer of bars or pre-stressing or post-tensioning cable ducts.
Features:
- Compatible with existing Protovale instruments
- Assesses distance and direction of steel within about 75mm of probe tip
- Forward-viewing coil warns of approach to tendons or rebars
- Sideways-viewing coil searches for ducts off the line of the hole
- Knowing the distance from the duct, you can drill faster initially
- Like its host instruments: tough and useable under difficult site conditions
Benefits:
- Can be used as an "add-on" to existing Rebar Plus or CoverMaster
- Helps to avoid damaging drills and reinforcement
- Knowing where the steel is saves on costly drilling time
- Reduces the number of costly and unsightly holes drilled