PRINCETON JUNCTION, NJ - Mistras Group Inc has teamed up with the Ohio Department of Transportation (ODOT) in their effort to improve state and local bridges. Select steel bridges throughout Ohio will have critical gusset plate condition testing done with the Pocket UT.

The Pocket UT, when accompanied by an R-scan, uses ultrasonic testing techniques to gather thickness data faster and display a graphical image to show areas of corrosion. The system runs on Windows CE and Pocket UTWin for data acquisition, analysis and archiving and has the capability to perform A, B and C-scan imaging. The data, retrieved by the two-pound unit, is stored on a 1 GHz compact flash card that can be easily transferred to a laptop computer.

Home to more than 42,000 bridges, Ohio requires more inspections than any other state. Trained bridge inspectors currently use conventional thickness gauges to take spot readings of ageing and deterioration of key areas such as gusset plates in steel bridges.

With the addition of the Pocket UT to ODOT's bridge inspection and preservation program, inspectors will be able to pinpoint divots and loss in a fraction of the time, unlike a typical gauge used in bridge inspection. This information is stored on the devices as a permanent record for future reference and readings.

In another development, Mistras Group, Inc has combined its Inspection Engineering Services and enterprise PCMS Software resources worldwide in order to create an Asset Integrity Management Services (AIMS) Center of Excellence (COE). Jim Redmon, presently PCMS Division Manager has been elevated to the position of vice president for the AIMS COE. He will focus the COE to utilise the knowledge and resources from the entire MISTRAS Group that includes engineering services, PCMS Software, Risk Based Inspection (RBI), Fitness for Services (FFS), online web based NDT solutions and internet customer reporting and data management and archiving.