New PinPointR now being used by Sydney Water

This week we completed the first part of our training for Sydney Water Specialised Support Services team who has invested in GPR technology with the new PinPointR Utility Radar from Impulse Radar. It was great to see a water authority invest in technology that will assist them in locating underground utilities among other uses within Sydney Water. Sydney Water trialled a couple of units before making a decision and selecting the PinPointR some of the reasons below.

• Light weight design and ease of setup. This is extremely important for Sydney Water as their staff will be unloading and loading from a vehicle at different jobsites all day. The PinPointR is under 20Kg and is not bulky so is easy to load and unload.
• Dual Frequency technology. The Ability to highlight small and sometimes shallow target utilities along with the deeper larger services improving safety for their workers in identifying services that traditional EMF may not be able to locate.
• Easy to use interface. This was another important factor, as operators although skilled in EMF locators had little experience with GPR so a simple easy to use interface was crucial.

The first training session covered the introduction of the PinPointR, how GPR Technology works for utilities, factors that can affect results in the field and when an operator should use GPR technology. After this, operators went out and were able to practice using the unit in the field. The practical area was great as it showed what GPR can locate and just as important how soils/moisture content can affect results.

After the training session was complete, Sydney Water was given a brief rundown on the new RAPTOR Multi Array Antenna which is currently in Australia for trials.