Water Environment Federation Names Electro Scan ‘Best Innovative Technology’
WEF Honors Breakthrough Technology That Converts Sewer TV Trucks to Identify Leaks & Defects, Not Seen or Recorded by High-Resolution CCTV Cameras
Sacramento, California, USA, July 22, 2013 — Electro Scan Inc., a global innovator of leak detection instrumentation and cloud computing applications, announced today its selection by the Water Environment Federation (WEF) as recipient of the 2013 Innovative Technology Award. The prestigious award was given to Electro Scan’s ES-620 leak detection product, an add-on to existing television inspection trucks that accurately locates and measures leaks in sewers, not visible by high-resolution CCTV cameras.
“We are delighted to be recognized by our colleagues,” stated Chuck Hansen, CEO of Electro Scan and wastewater pioneer. “Not since the introduction of TV cameras to televise sewers has a technology so quickly and radically changed the way we locate defects and certify repairs as leak-free. Electro Scan changes everything: from deciding which pipes to fix, to determining final acceptance of point repairs and lining projects.”
“Electro Scan adds a new dimension to sewer condition assessments,” stated Charles Wilmut, P.E., former Senior Vice President, Burgess & Niple, and early adopter of Electro Scan. “While CCTV provides an operator with a good overall visual account of a pipe, it is unable to locate and measure defects that cannot be seen. It’s not just the fact that Electro Scan finds more defects than CCTV, but it also measures the estimated magnitude of each defect, something never before available.”
Jim Eger, Executive Director, Water Environment Federation.
“Congratulations on being selected for this significant honor,” stated Jeff Eger, WEF’s Executive Director. The award recognized the Company’s contribution to improving water quality and will be presented at the 86th Annual Water Environment Federation Technical Exhibition and Conference (WEFTEC), October 5-9, 2013.
Electro Scan uses its patent-pending technology to generate an intense, focused array, of low-voltage/high-frequency electrical current to examine the walls of pipes for defects. If a pipe is in good condition, no current will be able to “leak” or escape out of the pipe and into the ground, unless there is a crack. All bad joints, defective service connections, and breaks in a pipe, are found by Electro Scan, not typically seen or recorded by visual inspection, laser profiling, sonar, or ground penetrating radar.
Designed to integrate with existing CCTV trucks, data from the Electro Scan probe is fed back via the truck’s existing cable to Electro Scan’s proprietary control unit, and then uploaded to the Electro Scan Cloud.
A benchmark comparison of water pressure testing and Electro Scan was conducted in 2012 at the Milwaukee Metro Sewer District (MMSD). In a project jointly sponsored by the Water Environment Research Foundation (WERF) and the USEPA, the study specifically compared Electro Scan to a number of condition assessment techniques to evaluate sewer laterals. While pressure testing identified a sewer lateral as PASSING, indicating a leakage rate of about 1 gallon per minute, Electro Scan found a significant number of leaks on the same pipe, including accurately locating specific defect locations, size, and estimated peak Gallons per Minute (GPM). Encrustations at defective joints had temporarily re-sealed defects in the lateral causing pressure testing to record a False-Positive result. As part of the same study, Electro Scan found 555 defects compared to 160 defects found with CCTV, evaluating the same pipes in a single residential survey area.
Earlier this year, Electro Scan won the Joseph L. Abbott, Jr. Product Innovation Award presented by the North American Society of Trenchless Technologies and the Sierra Nevada Innovation Challenge for Best CleanTech.
The American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) estimate capital needs for the U.S. wastewater infrastructure market of almost $300 billion over the next twenty years with aging pipes discharging 900 billion gallons of untreated sewage, each year. Hundreds of billions of dollars have been spent to add extra treatment plant capacity to process water entering through leaks in sewers, frequently causing residential and commercial sewer back-ups, manhole overflows, and sinkholes, each year.
The worldwide market for televising sewers represents nearly 15,000 CCTV trucks, excluding push cameras for evaluating smaller diameter pipes. Representing a budgeted upgrade cost of approximately US$150,000, authorized worldwide Electro Scan Dealers can install Electro Scan in new and existing television trucks, allowing field operators to switch from CCTV to Electro Scan, and back again, within minutes.
Advantages of the Electro Scan technology include its ability to scan pipes that are either full or partially full of water and provide automated leak detection information, including location to the nearest 0.4 inches (1 cm) and estimated peak GPM. While CCTV cameras are rarely, if ever, used during wet weather, Electro Scan, combined with CCTV, provides a year-round solution.
Electro Scan products are designed in accordance with ASTM Standard 2550-06 to assess non-conductive pipe materials (e.g. asbestos cement, brick, clay, plastic, resin lining, reinforced concrete, etc.).
Founded in 1928, the Water Environment Federation (WEF) is a not-for-profit association with more than 36,000 members worldwide providing technical education and training for water quality professionals who clean water and return it safely to the environment.
About Electro Scan
Electro Scan Inc. is a leading global provider of leak detection instrumentation and cloud computing applications that meet the technological needs of water utilities, commercial businesses, residential customers, and engineering organizations worldwide. Electro Scan offers the next generation in condition assessment evaluation technologies that allow customers to manage, protect, operate and certify their infrastructure. For more information visit www.electroscan.com and “Like” us on Facebook.
Contact, Janine Mullinix, info@electroscan.com, +1 916 779 0660