Home - SENSOR DDS® Zero Leak Philosophy

Sensor’s Zero Leak Philosophy backed with 30 years of knowledge and experience

Can the Holy Grail of the Geosynthetics Industry “Zero Leakage” be Really Achieved?
Let’s find out

THE FULL STORY OF SENSOR’S DEVELOPMENT AND OBTAINED RESULTS:

Arc testing as method to control integrity of exposed non-conductive geomembrane was tried for the first time in Slovakia in 1999. The idea of the development was to build and test a method that was able to detect holes in non-conductive geomembranes using only volume or surface conductivity of the environment upon which the geomembrane is placed mainly to achieve the ability to test large surface areas of standard geomembrane quickly – this means areas between seams / mid-panel.

A decision was made to develop a completely new device which would satisfy all our main requirements among which the key one was to reliably detect holes in non-conductive geomembranes. Of course the boundary conditions of the Arc method need to be respected by fulfilling the conditions of minimum electrical subgrade conductivity and providing a conductive connection to the whole surface.

We achieved the creation of visible electric arc in the location of any hole even that of very small size. Interestingly the colour of electrical arc varies according to the degree of subgrade conductivity and connection through the hole from a very bright white/blue to almost invisible orange/red/brown.

We received a great deal of positive feedback from sites and Clients offered us excellent testimony with regards to
the SENSOR DDS^® MIT Arc tester´s sensitivity and effectivity.

On other side, when we tried to obtain budget from them for next project we always received arguments that these
activities of geomembrane integrity testing of exposed geomembrane should be the responsibility of the geomembrane
installers because it came under the geomembrane installation phase of the project.

SENSOR DDS® MIT

Exposed liner testing

Quick and reliable arc testing of exposed liner integrity.
Detects even pinholes.

SENSOR DDS® Mobile

Covered liner testing

Testing integrity of covered liner without removing the top layer.
Able to detect leaks even through 70cm of covering material.

Step by step we were gradually detecting faults and holes which by their nature and character would not be detected and located by conventional methods valid under normal CQA procedures and therefore they would remain hidden and stay un-repaired forever.

On the other side, many of the holes we discovered were faults and mistakes that originated from the installation and should have been revealed by the normal CQA procedures already in place.

As the weight of evidence grew from sites highlighting such findings, finally some Clients started create budgets for independent Arc test surveys. They understood the root of the problems and received excellent results.

Unfortunately, the quality of the geomembrane installation process (placing of geomembrane panels, handling on site, welding of panels, related testing of seams, etc.) varies country by country and depends on: the degree of CQA application; training and experience of the installers; and undoubtedly the quality of geomembrane welding equipment used (including the age of equipment, quality of maintenance and most importantly whether it is correctly set up).

SENSOR DDS®

All leak location systems are designed and manufactured in Sensor in according to quality standards ISO 9001:2015 and ISO 14001:2015. The components of Sensor DDS^® permanent systems are backed with BAM certification from German institute for material testing. BAM certificate guarantees the minimum lifespan of all Sensor DDS^® permanent system components to be 30 years.