Profile
Our company is based in St. Petersburg (The Russian Federation) and was founded in 2004. Our main activities are the development and production of portable non-destructive testing devices intended for inspection of utility (power, telecom or lighting) poles. The company uses its own patented technology - SSR (Smart Shock Reading) that allows testing utility poles made of timber or reinforced concrete.
Prehistory
Nowadays, there are more than 2.1 millions Km of overhead power lines (0,4-220 kv) operated by the biggest power grid company in Russia - JSC IDGC Holding. As the most of overhead lines were constructed in the middle of the last century, the power distribution and telecom companies are now paying more attention to the problem of their facilities diagnosis and monitoring.
Concrete and wooden poles were widely used in the construction of the overhead lines (power and telecom). Most of these poles reached the end of their expected lifetime and should be replaced. With a view to saving and optimizing the overhead lines operation’s costs, the power and telecom companies increasingly began to consider and practice the philosophy of Reliability-centered maintenance (RCM) instead of preventive, capital maintenances and total replacements. Such approach can be implemented by using innovative and effective methods and devices of non-destructive control.
Over many years, monitoring methods of wooden poles were primitive and subjective. Pole, to be tested usually inspected by the sounding method (a skilled personnel strikes the pole by a hammer then listens to the sound produced) or even visually. Utility poles made of reinforced concrete are more difficult to be tested than wooden ones. The existing non-destructive methods, such as ultrasonic testing, provide a local assessment and require professional skills. Moreover, so far, there were no methods, which could assess the strength of the reinforced concrete entirely (concrete + reinforcing steel).
Our company has developed a unique non-destructive testing technology which allows estimating utility poles strength (presence of decays, rotting, cracks etc.). Based on this technology, a testing device (PoleExpert LIS-U) was created in July 2009. The device has already passed the Pre-production operation and it is now used in many branches of JSC "IDGC Holding" and in several Russian telecom companies.