28th September 2021 – Elop Technology has started its entry into the giant US infrastructure market through an important order for the company’s technologies for inspection and predictive maintenance of concrete infrastructure. US based SealTech has placed an order for both the handheld Elop Insight and robotized “Insight Crawler”.
SealTech, a Florida-based company that specializes in delivering products and services to extend the lifetime of concrete, has placed an order with Elop Technology for delivery of ten Elop Insight units and one InsightCrawler.
“This opens a US market for Elop where we know there is significant aging infrastructure and great potential. It is obviously of strategic importance to us, and the US market is facing major investments in the years to come, where an increased focus on environment and safety is creating opportunity for our unique solutions. We look forward to working closely with SealTech and we will assist them with what we can to ensure that they can deliver the best possible service to their customers” says Øivind Horpestad, CEO of Elop AS.
Florida-based SealTech has placed an order for ten hand-held Elop Insight ultrasound scanners and one InsightCrawler – an inspection robot that will be able to climb vertically on concrete infrastructure such as buildings, dams, cooling towers and bridges to provide an efficient mapping of their internal condition. SealTech aims to roll-out inspection services based on Elop Technology’s solutions from the beginning of 2022.
The Elop Insight scanners will be delivered during 2022 while the InsightCrawler, which is currently under development with Dekra Visatec, is expected to be delivered in the first half of 2022. Equipment deliveries in 2022 will allow for sufficient time to facilitate customary US regulatory approvals for the technologies.
“The tragic building collapse in Florida earlier this year has raised awareness from US authorities and infrastructure owners in both public and private sector about the necessity to find a more reliable way of monitoring the internal state of concrete infrastructure. Until now most inspections of concrete infrastructure have been done visually. Through utilising Elop Insight, we want to radically improve the way infrastructure inspection and monitoring is done in the USA,” says Maria P. Conde, President of SealTech.
The patented rolling Elop Insight ultrasound scanner helps to identify issues that owners of concrete infrastructure must address. It is designed to quickly inspect and assess large surface areas. The live 3D visualization of the concrete structure on the scanner screen, provides a real-time interpretation of the concrete’s internal state, including elements and defects such as cracks, air pockets, voids, delamination, and rebars.
According to the American Society of Civil Engineers’ (ASCE) 2021 Infrastructure Report Card, which is published every four years, the long-term infrastructure investment gap in the USA continues to grow. That gap has risen from USD 2.1 trillion over 10 years to USD 2.59 trillion in the latest study, meaning a funding gap of USD 259 billion per year.
In August this year, the US Senate passed a bipartisan infrastructure bill that includes USD 550 billion in new federal investments in America’s infrastructure over five years. This includes USD 110 billion investments in roads, bridges and major infrastructure projects, and USD 40 billion for bridge repair, replacement and rehabilitation.
“The combination of aging infrastructure, an increasing maintenance lag and significant investment plans in the coming years gives us good reason to be optimistic on Elop’s behalf. We know that you can secure infrastructure and significantly increase its lifespan if maintenance is correctly performed and our technology can give the overview and insight to do so,” adds Øivind Horpestad.
