Lord Civil

Having worked for many years in this region with the Sensors & Software company of Canada, arguably the premier manufacturer of cutting-edge ground penetrating radar (GPR) systems internationally, LORD Civil turned to them following the release of The Building Act 2005 to arrive at the optimal hardware for conducting the required levels of concrete structure integrity verification and analysis field work sought.

With their equipment already widely respected both in NZ and Australia for applications ranging from buried utility mapping to road non-destructive concrete structure inspection, forensics, and archaeological investigations, Sensors proved the ideal technical partner in this project.
Detecting and imaging the structural elements embedded in reinforced concrete in a practical and effective manner is clearly a major advantage when carrying out retrofits or evaluating structural integrity. GPR provides inherently a powerful means of locating and mapping structural shells, post tension cables or embedded conduits but the challenge was to arrive at a product capable of greatly exceeding the data quality that had been previously available to the Industyr. Particularly, a 3D imaging of supporting columns was seen as an essential outcome from the device.

The end result of this project was the recent launch of a new product, denoted the Conquest Enhanced which has more than exceeded all such expectations.

Given the major field workload and level of detailed as-built construction information the new Act portends, the system was conceived from the standpoints of performance, ease and speed of use, and field practicability. The resulting system is thus configured for remote data acquisition making floor, wall or ceiling scanning easy, aided further by way of an integrated odometer fitted to a compact antenna for the tightest spots, light indicators, and a beeper to accelerate data acquisition. A large colour LCD display makes it easy to work at a distance, whilst intelligent, user-friendly firmware makes operation simple and straightforward

Arrival on site to image generation is achieved, impressively, in a mere matter of minutes.
Once scanning is complete, Conquest produces sharp, clean plan-map views at various depths in the slab under investigation, allowing decisions to be made on the spot. Additionally, data can be easily transferred to a PC using the removable compact flash memory card. Associated software displays, reprocesses, prints, and archives Conquest data and report-quality 2D or 3D images can be generated to document survey results.

LORD Civil is justifiably proud of the outcome of this work and the contribution it will undoubtedly make to enhancing and verifying the structural and seismic integrity of at-risk civil structures and buildings in New Zealand. Inquiries are welcomed.