SBIR-STTR Award

The objective of the proposed Exploratory Development effort is to prove feasibility of advanced concepts for a lightweight tool for regularly inspecting the guy wires that support tall antenna towers, and to develop a design of such a tool. The tool will have one simple haul-up line and no power or data transmission lines. In particular, the tool will be lightweight, self-powered and self-recording and work reliably in the field. It will smoothly track guys of up to 3.5 inches in diameter with varying amounts of swelling in a manner that ensures high quality inspection data. The performance of the tool will not be affected by severe EMI/RFI conditions.

Benefit:
The R&D effort proposed here will lead to a tool for the inspection of guy wires of broadcast towers and those of many other civil engineering structures. The new tool, while technically advanced, will be easy to operate and practical even for moderately skilled personnel. Many of these civil engineering structures tend to be relatively young, so the need for non-visual inspections does not yet exist. It is to be expected that this market will gradually develop as the structures age and reach the end of their design life. Further, the 1500+ guys holding up towers for Navy VLF/LF antennas have been in service at least 10 years past their 25-year-design life and are thus in critical need of quantifiable inspection for effective corrosion control, particularly for internal corrosion. Therefore, there exists an immediate need for nondestructive MFL cable inspection equipment of the type discussed in this proposal. This situation makes the proposed research of immediate interest for the US Navy.

Keywords:
Inspection, Inspection, corrosion, Guyed Tower, Magnetic Flux Leakage, Electromagnetic, Wire Rope

The objective of this proposal is to develop a lightweight tool for regularly inspecting the guy wires that support large antenna towers. In particular, the objective of the proposed exploratory development effort is to prove feasibility of the advanced concepts described in the following, and to develop a design of such a tool. The tool should have one simple haul-up line and no power or data transmission lines. In particular, In particular, it is proposed to built a small-scale version of the tool in order to demonstrate feasibility of the underlying concepts and to gain practical experience with the instrumentation.

Benefit:
Most of the 1500+ guys holding up towers for Navy VLF/LF antennas have been in service at least 10 years past their 25-year-design life and are thus in critical need of quantifiable inspection for effective corrosion control, particularly for internal corrosion. To avoid unnecessary risk, the development of a better method to inspect the guy wires is needed. This proposal responds to those needs.

Keywords:
Antenna, Wire Rope, Inspection, guy wire, Electromagnetic