We have added the Pearpoint P571 EX system to our rental pool.  This is a 500’ push camera system that works great for 4”-24” pipe lines.  It comes with brushes for centering and an extra light head for larger pipe diameters.  The camera carries an EX rating but it is only in effect when you have an EX trained operator.  If you have an EX application and you don’t have an EX trained operator, contact us and we will arrange for one of our EX trained inspectors to go with the shipment.

I recently returned from the 2008 Aviation Industry Expo in Dallas Texas.  Phil Bedard, Darren Billings and I manned booth 331 March 18 – 20, 2008. This annual event is directed toward aviation line services and along with the hundreds of exhibitors, there were training seminars, a “Maintenance Summit”, numerous speakers, a maintenance skills competition, and a golf tournament that raised funds for AMT scholarships. Interestingly, of the equipment we brought to exhibit, the new 4mm Itools and SnakeEye III  captured the most excitement;  the 4mm Itool mainly for small GT inspection and the SnakeEyeIII for just about everything else including airframes, trucks, ground support equipment maintenance.  These are two great scopes to help meet inspection needs for two different markets and two different price points. The SnakeEye III starts at about $3500.  These units are bright yellow, water proof, can handle temps between 14̊ F and140̊ F and weigh less than 2 lbs! It is a really easy unit to use. Needless to say lots of people were interested in buying them. Aqua, the manufacturer of SnakeEye IIIs and IIs, said they have sold more than 10,000 units. The other scope we brought was the recently released IT Concepts 4mm. It looks exactly like their 6mm and 8mm units, but can enter even smaller diameters than their current models. IT Concepts is quickly making a name for itself as a provider of videoscopes with superb image quality, ease of use, and portability. This one has amazing resolution: 77K pixels and video integration for optimal light capture. It was so new that there weren’t any brochures or press releases out on it at the time we took it to the tradeshow.  We were excited to be able to get one of the first ones and to show it to the AS3 crowd. The 4mm is going to make the competition very uncomfortable – it does it all – and does it for a lot less money than any comparable unit.  Even though this unit was just unveiled the beginning of March there are several standing orders for it as IT Concepts ramps up production. Just about everyone that saw these units were interested in buying one or the other. It always feels good to bring new products that do so well at the shows

I want to let you all know we have recently perfected a new technique to repair failed LED lights on Olympus MX videoscopes.  The MX is a nice video borescope system from Olympus that uses LED lights.  The LED lights enable the videoscope to be very portable and to operate for an extended period on batteries.  The problem with these particular MX scopes is that sometimes half of the LED lights burn out.  One Olympus MX owner got an estimate from Olympus Repair in the $8,000-$10,000 range; with the recommendation to replace the entire scope portion of the system.  Then the owner of the scope called us. We were able to repair and or restore 3 of the 4 burned out lights. Now we’ve perfected the technique and are able to get all lights working for a total cost of around $2,000.

Our borescope repair department has recently developed a technique to adjust and tighten articulation on Olympus IPLEX Videoscopes.  Olympus has not offered articulation adjustment as a repair option.  If your Iplex needed articulation adjustment you were required to complete an “overhaul” which essentially meant the entire scope was replaced.  Atlas Inspection can now complete this repair on Olympus Iplex and on other borescopes and videoscopes from Olympus, GE Inspection Technologies, Machida, Karl Storz as well as on all other manufacturers. 

We are pleased to announce a new offering for our videoscope and borescope rentals and sales!  IT Concepts has introduced two new 4.0mm videoscopes: the iSeries 4mm super high resolution and the value priced 4mm eXtreme system.  Both systems are designed to be portable, offer high quality images and deliver the best cost of ownership in the industry.  I had opportunity to use the 4mm iSeries last week and I was impressed by the image quality in both image brightness and resolution.  On the USAF 1951 Resolution Test Target it resolved into group 1-6.  That is OUTSTANDING!  These units are available for purchase and will be added to the rental inventory shortly!

Welcome to the Atlas Inspection Technologies BLOG!  Atlas Inspections’ focus is on delivering value based offerings to the Remote Visual Inspection (RVI) community: users of borescopes, fiberscopes, videoscopes, pipe cameras, robotic crawlers and infrared cameras.  Our offering focuses on 3 areas:

1. Rentals of borescopes, fiberscopes, videoscopes and other remote visual inspection equipment.
2. Component level repairs of borescopes, fiberscopes, videoscopes, and light sources from all manufacturers including Olympus and GE/EVIT.
3. New and pre-owned equipment for sale includes borescopes, fiberscopes, videoscopes, pipe crawlers, pipe cameras, and other remote visual cameras.

 We’ll use this blog to deliver new and/or interesting information on these topics and to address any questions you would like answered.  Please send along to info@atlas-inspection.com anything interesting (pictures, applications, new products).  Thanks for reading!