Electro Scan Inc. Named to 2020 GovTech 100 List, Safeguarding CAPEX & Environmental Governance of Sewer & Water Pipes

Disruptive high tech California-based company provides products and independent testing services of over 100 different pipe materials, including Cured-In-Place Pipe (CIPP).

Electro Scan’s 2019 Annual Cured-In-Place Pipe (CIPP) Survey Shows 84% of All Lined Pipes Inspected Had Unacceptable Defects

SACRAMENTO, CALIF., USA, January 7, 2020 /EINPresswire.com/ — Electro Scan Inc., a leading supplier of machine-intelligent pipeline assessment products & services for municipal water & wastewater utilities was again named to Government Technology’s 2020 GovTech 100 list of top companies.

Compiled annually by government technology media company e.Republic, the list represents a compendium of the top 100 companies focused on making a difference in optimizing government capital and operations spending.

“We are honored to make the ‘GovTech 100’ list for the second year in a row,” stated Chuck Hansen, CEO & Founder, Electro Scan Inc.

“Our selection as a GovTech 100 company signals the increasing importance that cities are placing on making sure their capital investments in sewer & water pipes are properly spent and perform as designed,” stated Hansen.

“This 2020 recognition validates our ongoing work and the positive results seen by our customers throughout the U.S. and worldwide,” Hansen continued.

Today, academicians, consulting engineers, elected & appointed officials, municipal bondholders, and ratepayers realize the limitations of using legacy Closed-Circuit Television (CCTV) inspection to certify new or existing sewer, force mains, and pressurized water mains, as watertight.

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The market for trenchless pipe renewal techniques has grown significantly, especially since key CIPP patents expired several years ago. But, lower product quality, poor reinstatement of customer’s lateral connections, and lenient acceptance guidelines have driven new standards for pipeline inspection and certification.

In releasing results from its 4th Annual CIPP Survey, Electro Scan disclosed that in 2019 the company’s products were used to test over 21 miles of CIPP liners, documenting over 14,000 pipe defects that contributed to unwanted leaks.

These results showed a 78% increase of documented pipe defects for CIPP lined pipes tested by the company in 2018.

Referred by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) as Focused Electrode Leak Location (FELL), all Electro Scan testing was completed in accordance with ASTM F2550 “Standard Practice for Locating Leaks in Sewer Pipes By Measuring the Variation of Electric Current Flow Through the Pipe Wall.”

Notable projects in 2019 included a 22-mile assessment with Kansas City, Missouri, completion of a 25-mile assessment in Hillsborough County, Florida, and nearing completion of a 30-mile city-wide pipe assessment project with the Town of La Grange, North Carolina.

This week, Electro Scan crews returned to a major city in the state of Texas where the company is completing a significant pilot project to assess pre- and post-rehabilitated pipes, including CIPP liners.

“Leakage in newly lined CIPP is the dirty-little-secret that no one likes to talk about,” states Hansen. “Especially when pipes experience more infiltration after rehabilitation, than before rehabilitation.”

Poor construction or installation techniques and lack of appropriate quality assurance & quality controls have led to disappointing pipeline performance.

Without reliable and unbiased inspection capabilities, municipal water & wastewater agencies are paying for work that does not meet minimum accepted standards for pipe water tightness.

“New technology and industry standards, like ASTM F2550, provide an objective & unbiased reporting of pipe integrity,” states Carissa Boudwin, Electro Scan’s Vice President, Marketing.

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Communities that instituted city ordinances requiring homeowners & real estate developers to test their service laterals for leaks, are beginning to realize that CCTV cameras cannot locate leaks or tell whether cracks are superficial or go completely through the pipe.

Recent investigations show that customer laterals, or pipes that connect homes to municipal sewer systems, do not contribute the high levels of infiltration once generally assumed by consulting engineers.

“New technology from Electro Scan automatically tells if a customer’s connection to the sewer or water mainline is watertight, where previous visual inspections using high resolution cameras were inconclusive or subjective,” states Boudwin.

If no leaks are found at customer connections using FELL technology before CIPP rehabilitation, then no leaks should be found at the same customer connections using FELL after CIPP, unless contractors inadvertently damaged the connection during reinstatement.

Obviously, contractors should be notified of the quality of their work while still in the field, so necessary repairs, replacements, or relining, can take place while the original contractor is still mobilized in the field.

In 2019, Electro Scan released new software to more accurately quantify the severity of “pinhole” leaks, or those pipe defects that measure less than 0.1 gallons per minute. This level was established from recommendations developed by the Institut für Unterirdische Infrastruktur (IKT) based in Gelsenkirchen, Germany.

“It’s like we’ve been telling clients since we started testing CIPP liners in 2014; quality is not always visible on CCTV surveys and depends on the production, impregnation, installation, curing, and customer reinstatement,” states Mike App, Electro Scan’s Vice President, Eastern Region.

“Electro Scan can’t tell ‘why’ a pipe leaks; but it can pinpoint a leak’s location to the closest 3/8 inch (1cm) and estimate its severity in gallons per minute or liters per second,” states App.

“Quality pipes result from using quality products that are properly installed,” states Michael Condran, P.E., Electro Scan’s Vice President, Southeast Region.

Currently, CIPP liners may be installed using Steam, Thermal, Ultra-Violet (UV), and Light-Emitting Diode (LED) curing methods, with each pipe tested and results stored on the Company’s proprietary Critical Sewers^® cloud application, including date/time, atmospheric reading, defect profile, diameter, length, material, contractor, consulting engineer, and supplier.

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Legacy inspection techniques such as acoustic, electromagnetic, fiber optic, ground penetrating radar, helium tracer, hydrostatic, infrared, laser, LiDAR, magnetic flux, pressure gradient, radar, satellite, sonar, thermal, and video micrometers lack the data details and repeatability offered by FELL technology.

In 2019, Electro Scan’s low voltage technology was featured as part of the American Water Works Association (AWWA) First Edition M77 Condition Assessment of Water Mains Manual of Water Supply Practices, specifically for pressurized plastic and cured-in-place pipes.

FELL technology is able to assess over 100 different pipe materials, having various shapes, ranging from 3 inches to 60 inches (76mm to 1500mm) pipe diameters.

“Thank you to Government Technology for the honor of being part of the GovTech 100, and thank you to the growing number of local governments and utilities adopting Electro Scan’s digital governance platform,” stated Mike Condran, Southeast Regional Vice President.

“Our success is directly tied to the success of our local government and utility clients, and we couldn’t be more pleased to serve our communities, ratepayers, and stakeholders,” said Condran.

About Electro Scan Inc.
Founded in 2011, the company designs, develops, markets, and provides technology services for advanced pipe condition assessment. Headquartered in Sacramento, California, the company was started by software entrepreneur Chuck Hansen, former Chairman & CEO, of Hansen Information Technologies, a leading government software solutions provider he helped found in 1983. The company sells both equipment to local governments and utilities to conduct their own testing,as certification of pipelines and offers a Technology as a Service solution.

For more information contact:
Carissa Boudwin, Vice President, Marketing, Tel: 916-779-0660, [email protected]

Carissa Boudwin
Electro Scan Inc.
+1 916-779-0660
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