Anyone working around aluminum high-pressure gas cylinders knows how reliable they are. In fact, they are so dependable that often we forget they need to be treated with care and respect. Proper maintenance is necessary to make sure cylinders are fit for service, especially when they undergo harsh service, such as scuba diving and firefighting.

Professionally competent visual inspections are a key element in the proper maintenance of gas cylinders, and the inspection of cylinder neck threads is an important part of the process. Yet even the best trained and most experienced technician can miss or wrongly diagnose small imperfections, such as hairline cracks and folds.

That's where Visual Plus comes in!

Visual Plus is a non-destructive testing (NDT) device which utilizes eddy currents to detect neck and shoulder cracks, folds or other similar imperfections in aluminum cylinders such as scuba, SCBA (all metal, hoop-wrap or full wrap), beverage, medical, industrial gas cylinders, fire extinguishers, etc.

An electromagnetic wave is introduced into the metal of the vessels near the area which is desirable to inspect for imperfections (the threaded area). The wave causes currents to flow in a circular manner in the metal. They are called eddy currents because the flow is circular. An imperfection can increase the path that the currents have to flow and so make the material appear higher in resistance in that region where the imperfection is present. This generates a spike on the computer generated report which alerts the technician to a problem that requires further investigation.

Hydrostatic testing alone does not reveal cracking in the neck/shoulder area of aluminum cylinders unless they are leaking. Visual Plus identifies 100% of these defective cylinders... Don't leave it to chance!

See a sample printout of a vessel with an imperfection in the neck by clicking on this image.

See a photo of a cracked cylinder neck that was picked up by the Visual Plus unit and barely visible to the naked eye!