I tried Eddy Current Testing on my relationship.
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It showed significant lift-off.
Eddy Current Testing Jokes
Impedance planes, lift-off and the joys of conductivity. 63 jokes.
I admire Eddy Current Testing's honesty.
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It tells you how it feels about the surface and keeps its deeper thoughts to itself.
The bobbin coil loves its job.
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It's always going through something.
Paint is the best excuse in Eddy Current Testing.
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It's not you, it's the coating.
The eddy current technician refused to sit at the end of the table.
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He had a thing about the edge effect.
The eddy current technician always wins at chess.
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He can sense a pit under any coating.
Copper and aluminum argued about who is more conductive.
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Copper ended it by pointing out that it sets the 100 percent mark.
Ferromagnetic materials are the drama queens of Eddy Current Testing.
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Their permeability changes with every little thing.
The rotating probe never loses an argument.
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It always comes back around to the point.
The differential probe is very judgmental.
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It compares everything to the coil next to it.
Shielded probes keep their fields to themselves.
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They call it professional boundaries.
Why do eddy current technicians love heat exchangers?
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Hundreds of tubes, one setup, and a support plate to blame.
Why did the crack escape the eddy current probe?
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It was lined up with the current and never got in its way.
What did the stainless steel tube say about its pit?
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It's not a defect, just a discontinuity with character.
Why did the technician lower the frequency?
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He needed more depth, and he was willing to give up some detail to get it.
Why did the impedance plane never get lonely?
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Everyone who visited left a point.
Why was the eddy current technician so relaxed at the end of the shift?
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He had finally found his null.
What does an eddy current technician say about a tube missing a chunk of wall?
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'Well, that's one way to get a signal.'
What did the probe say after pulling through 800 tubes?
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I'm all coiled out.
When is lift-off the right answer?
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When the job is measuring coating thickness.
Why do eddy currents make poor mountain climbers?
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They give up long before the deep part.
In Eddy Current Testing, the crack is the signal and everything else is the paint's fault.
Eddy currents, like most good gossip, die out quickly the deeper you go.
A nulled probe is the one time everyone is happy to see nothing.
Phase angle is the one thing in Eddy Current Testing everyone says they understand and nobody can explain on a whiteboard.
The tube is clean, the probe is calibrated, the frequency is right, and the signal is still a mystery. It's called Tuesday.
A calibration standard with flat-bottom holes at set depths is the only honest ruler in a heat exchanger.
Eddy Current Testing is the method where 'it depends on the frequency' is always a complete and correct answer.
Lift-off is the only technical term that sounds like a good thing and measures a bad thing.
You might be an Eddy Current Testing technician if...
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...you describe an energetic coworker as 'highly conductive.'
You might be an Eddy Current Testing technician if...
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...you've drawn a figure-eight on a napkin and said, 'That's a pit.'
You might be an Eddy Current Testing technician if...
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...you've held a coin near a coil just to see what happens.
You might be an Eddy Current Testing technician if...
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...you were happy to see lift-off, because the job was coating thickness.
You might be an Eddy Current Testing technician if...
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...you consider 'null the probe' to be sound life advice.
The technician spent the morning chasing a signal across the heat exchanger tubes. It showed up in every tube, always at the same distance. He finally traced it to the support plate, which had been on the drawing the whole time.
The apprentice nulled the probe, then lifted it off the part to point at the screen. 'Look at that huge signal!' he said. 'That's lift-off,' I said. 'You made it yourself.'
The client asked if Eddy Current Testing could find a flaw on the far side of a thick steel plate. I explained skin depth. He nodded. 'So you need to be on the other side.' 'Yes.' 'Then why are you on this side?' That was a fair question.
The rookie pulled his bobbin probe through twenty tubes without a single bit of noise. The senior technician was impressed, then suspicious. The cable had been disconnected since tube one.
Lift-Off (n.): What a rocket and an eddy current probe have in common. Both ruin the day when they happen by accident.
Skin Depth (n.): How far into a metal an eddy current will go before it loses interest.
Impedance Plane (n.): A screen where every flaw gets a squiggle and every squiggle gets an opinion.
Frequency (n.): The setting you change when the flaw is deeper than your confidence.
Null (n.): The state of calm in which an eddy current instrument has nothing to say. Rare.
Knock, knock.
Who's there?
Coil.
Coil who?
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Coil you please hold the probe steady?
Knock, knock.
Who's there?
Eddy.
Eddy who?
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Eddy-body home? I can't get a signal.
Knock, knock.
Who's there?
Phase.
Phase who?
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Phase it, you're out of phase.
Knock, knock.
Who's there?
Bobbin.
Bobbin who?
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Bobbin' along through the tubes, can't talk long.
A probe that was lifted too high
Gave a signal that wasn't a lie,
But it wasn't a flaw;
It was lift-off, I saw,
So I pressed it back down with a sigh.
Eddy currents fade.
Deeper in the steel they thin.
Surface flaws shout loud.
Tube after tube clean.
One small pit near the support.
The report gets long.
Are you an eddy current coil? Because every time you get close, my field changes.
I'd never let lift-off come between us.
You must be copper, because you're my 100 percent on the conductivity scale.
Ever notice that the loudest signal on an eddy current screen is usually the wobble from your own hand?
Nobody warns you that 'cleaned tubes' can mean anything from spotless to scraped, and you find out only when the probe stops.
What happens to a steam generator tube with a relevant indication that is too large?
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It gets plugged and retired with full honors.
Steam generator inspection is a tube-ular career.
Bolt hole inspection is never boring. It's just full of bores.
What did the wing skin say to the eddy current coil?
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You're really getting under my skin.
Why did the pulled tube bundle get so much attention?
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It had hundreds of tubes, and every one of them had something to say.
Eddy currents flow in circles, and so does the outage meeting.
'How many steam generator tubes are left?' Carlos asked. 'About three thousand,' said the lead. 'Great,' said Carlos. 'I'll be done by Thursday.' It was Monday. By Wednesday the outage clock had moved the finish line to Saturday. Carlos quietly rescheduled his weekend. It had gotten used to it.
The inspector told the first row of fastener holes she was with them for the long haul.
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Four thousand holes later, she meant it.
Also Touching on Eddy Current Testing
Eddy currents are just electrons trying to go around the problem.