About SmartBall® for Water and Wastewater Pipelines
Soundprint® SmartBall® is a new and innovative leak detection technology from Pure Technologies. It is a free-swimming foam ball with an instrument-filled aluminum alloy core capable of detecting and locating very small leaks and gas pocket leaks in pipelines.
SmartBall® can be inserted and retrieved from a pipeline under normal operation. The ball travels with the water flow for up to 15 hours, collecting information about leaks over many miles of pipeline with a single deployment.
The size of the SmartBall® selected for a specific survey is based on a number of criteria including the diameter of the pipeline, location of in-line valves, the size of the appurtenances through which the SmartBall® is inserted and retrieved, and the presence of other lateral lines. Typically, the SmartBall® will be less than one-third the diameter of the pipeline.
Due to its unique design, it has several advantages over other leak detection methods:
- there is no apparatus noise, so it can detect very small leaks
- its small size allows it to pass through inline valves, reducers and other appurtenances
- its long battery life and large memory capacity allows it to operate for up to fifteen hours, thereby permitting very long lengths of pipeline to be surveyed with a single deployment (at a water flow rate of 1.64 ft/s ( 0.5 m/s), the ball can travel almost 15 miles (25 km)
- only two access points are needed into the pipe, at insertion and extraction locations
- The tracking equipment needed for the survey is lightweight and requires minimal access to the pipe
- During the survey the sensor actually passes the leak, thereby providing maximum acoustic sensitivity and leak detection resolution .
SmartBall® is suitable for numerous applications, including:
- Transmission mains 10-inches and greater.
- All types of pressure pipe, including concrete, steel, ductile iron, PVC and GRP
- Water, raw water and other pressure pipes where insertion and removal can be assured.
How it works
SmartBall’s® acoustic sensor passes through the entire length of pipe being surveyed. The sensor can clearly discern the acoustic activity associated with leaks. This data is recorded and post-processed to report the presence and location of leaks.
SmartBall® calculates the locations of leaks by detecting acoustic pulses emitted by the ball at receivers attached to pipe appurtenances. The locations of the leaks relative to the receiver positions are determined by analyzing arrival times of the pulses.
Additional instrumentation in the SmartBall® is used to calculate flow rates along the pipeline and to identify valves, pipe joints and other features of the line.
SmartBall® Licensing Information
Licenses are available to qualified service providers and pipeline operators who are interested in using our revolutionary SMARTBALL® technology for leak detection in water, wastewater and hydrocarbon pipelines.
Licenses include equipment, software, training, technical support and upgrades, as well as support with marketing and an invitation to our annual regional user group conferences.
Preferential pricing is available for multiple licenses.
For more information, and to determine if your company is qualified to become a licensee, please complete the response form at the link below: