Development of low-power emat instrumentation for in-service corrosion inspection and monitoring in high temperature assets
EMAT is an advanced couplant-free ultrasonic technology that overcomes the Achilles heel of conventional ultrasonic testing (UT), transferring energy from the probe into the material inspected. Unlike UT, EMAT does not require couplant nor direct contact with the target surface, making the technology ideal for field-use and automation.
The biggest drawback of this technology is its high-power consumption, which in turn leads to bulky instrumentation and higher pricing when compared to conventional ultrasonic devices. LOPEMAT project will tackle this challenge, paving the way to a new paradigm of ultrasonic inspection trough the development of the first line of Low-Power EMAT systems. 
In line with the trend to make technology cheaper, lighter and more efficient, recent publications have shown it feasible to generate EMAT bursts with an excitation of 0.5 W and 4.5 Vpp, using a combination of advanced signal processing techniques such as binary quantization and coded excitation, whilst a typical high-power EMAT instrument such as Innerspec’s PowerBox H, works with 8000 W and 1200 Vpp, limiting its size, price range and portability. 
A change so vast in power consumption would constitute a total gamechanger in the field, allowing for cheaper and lighter EMAT instruments, no bigger than a smartphone, that could be powered trough a power-bank or USB port, and could compete with conventional ultrasonic devices across the whole range of NDT applications. 
Thus, the main goal of the LOPEMAT project is to develop and validate a first working prototype of low-power EMAT system for normal beam and guided wave generation.