Scientists who study the corrosion of reinforcing bar under concrete have a particularly difficult task. They understand and use electrochemistry to study the quality of concrete cover and the rate of corrosion of the rebar. From this they can estimate the lifetime of a structure. ACM makes a range of products to accurately measure these parameters and assist the concrete scientist.
For the research scientist in the laboratory we offer the Gill 8, this performs AC tests to determine concrete resistivity & wetness plus DC tests to calculate corrosion, galvanic current flow and chloride uptake. The use of multichannels lets parallel experiments run for reproducibility. Our concrete scientist customers, particularly universities, have also bought the single channel Gill AC.
The research scientist and engineer in the field of concrete has been well catered for by ACM since our first portable instrument in 1986. Our older instruments, notably the EuroMeter and EuroMeter II, have been superseded by the Field Machine; a PC controlled and portable instrument that AC and DC. It can be fitted with our GalvoGuard probe electronics to allow galvanostatic guard ring operation. The Field Machine may also be equipped with the potentiostatic guard ring electronics to allow all DC tests under guard ring focus. Some of ACM's other products may also be considered, the LPR Meter, the Pocket Machine and the Field Logger offer small lightweight solutions to specific problems, but without the versatility of the PC controlled instruments. Our customers have commissioned some very interesting concrete monitoring instruments over the last 16 years, ranging from coulostatic pulse generators through corrosion alarms to capacitance estimators. We still have these designs and would be happy to build again for any new or existing customers. One instrument was designed to be a portable instrument for potentiostatic determination of solution resistance and corrosion rate of rebar in concrete called the SOLnCOR Concrete Meter. Another dedicated piece of equipment, a portable instrument for potentiostatic determination of solution resistance and corrosion rate of rebar in concrete.built originally for monitoring bridge decks, is the Concrete 32, a matrix switching arrangement at the front of each of the 32 channels allows any combination of 8 embedded probes per channel to be monitored for galvanic currents, LPR and potential. Temperature is measured and the instrument can accept ER probes. The resulting data is then plotted as a 2D or 3D contour map to help with bridge repair and operation. ACM's attention to detail and accuracy is reflected in all these concrete products, we even designed and installed one of the world's first telephony controlled remote Cathodic Protection systems! Our new Internet Control is ideal for such systems.
See Application Notes for more information on guard ring, ER and LPR techniques.
See Downloads for instrumentation datasheets.