Echologics, a leading developer of acoustic-based technologies for water loss management, leak detection and pipe condition assessment, has enhanced its acoustic leak listening device, LeakTuner, to increase the technology?s ability to help utilities precisely locate leaks in water distribution pipelines without breaking ground or disrupting service.
The enhancement includes a wider range of frequency settings that municipal workers can choose from to further reduce both electronic ?white? noise as well as ambient background noise when using LeakTuner to test for leaks. Using LeakTuner, workers listen for leaks through headsets that connect to acoustical sensors, which are directly attached to pipes, hydrants, valves or fittings. By reducing ambient and electronic noise, LeakTuner improves a user?s ability to clearly hear leak sounds with reduced interference from background noise, so even relatively quiet leaks can be heard more easily on pipes of nearly all sizes and materials, including asbestos cement, copper, galvanized steel, polyvinyl chloride (PVC), concrete, ductile iron and cast iron.
?The level of noise created by a leak differs according to pipe material,? said Marc Bracken, vice president and general manager of Echologics. ?A leak on a plastic or asbestos cement pipe is relatively quiet and difficult to detect compared to a leak of the same size on a metallic pipe. By enabling users to adjust frequency settings to match leak noise frequencies of specific types of pipe material and eliminate background noise, LeakTuner provides municipalities with a non-invasive device they can use to detect leaks that other technologies may fail to find.??? ?
