Application Notes

Simplifying Valve Inspections with the Sonatest Wave

Valve inspection represents a small but critical aspect of quality assurance in the oil and gas industry. Each valve’s design varies based on factors such as pressure ratings, diameter, and corrosion protection. This application note highlights how the Sonatest Wave streamlines ultrasonic testing for valves, including those with complex geometries.

Download Application Note (1.8MB)

Fig. 1 - Custom Drawings with A-Scan Overlay

Understanding the Challenge

Valves come in many forms—ball, gate, plug, and globe valves—each with unique shapes and dimensions. These variations pose significant challenges during inspection. Internal and external profiles often lack clear access for evaluating remaining wall thickness. Since flow paths are optimized for tight sealing and efficiency, understanding the valve geometry beforehand is essential for accurately locating areas of potential damage.

The Smart UT Solution

The Wave allows users to import custom drawings directly into the instrument for thickness measurement. Overlaying these drawings with A-scan data enables a precise comparison and evaluation of reflection responses around the valve. Key inspection areas can be easily identified, targeted, and validated.

The Payoff

Faster inspections
Simplified reporting
Greater confidence in results

With this approach, inspections become significantly more intuitive, while reporting is streamlined for quality control teams, making valve testing easier, faster, and more reliable.

Recommended Tool Package

Category	Part#	Description
Acquisition Unit	Wave	sonatest.com/products/flaw-detectors/wave
Probe	PDEM and RDT are recommended, other viable compression models can be offered	sonatest.com/products/transducers/compression/pdem sonatest.com/products/transducers/compression/rdt

Please contact our Applications Team if you have any questions. You can also find more solutions on our website.

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