1979: Eddy Current Technology is founded with the mission to design, develop, and manufacture state-of-the-art multi-frequency eddy current equipment.
1980: Eddy Current Technology introduces the ect 3000, the world's first portable multi-frequency eddy
current instrument, complete with multiple frequency channels, a mixer, and CRT display, all in one
portable package weighing only 28 pounds.
1983: Eddy Current Technology develops the ect 3D Eddy Current System, a special eddy current
instrument and probe design, which is the first eddy current system capable of detecting circumferential
cracks at the tube sheet expansion transition zone. This had become a serious problem in nuclear steam
generators.
1985: Eddy Current Technology introduces the ect MAD 2 Eddy Current System. The system is designed using more digital circuitry and less analog circuitry. All front panel rotary controls (except for volts per division controls) are replaced with digital thumb wheel switches. The result is lower noise,
better stability, better repeatability of setups, and a lower cost per channel.
1990: Eddy Current Technology Incorporated introduces the ect MAD 4D Eddy Current System, the world's first computer based multi-frequency eddy current instrument. The result is a lower cost per channel.
1991: Eddy Current Technology Incorporated introduces the ect MAD 4D-RM, the first all-in-one box computer based eddy current system, complete with a built-in optical disk drive for long term data storage. At 95 pounds, it is heavy as a portable, but this is the first time the data storage device is in
the same unit as the eddy current hardware and screen.
1991: Eddy Current Technology introduces the ect MAD 4D-XS in a smaller, more portable computer with color liquid crystal display, reducing the total system weight to 28 pounds, including the built-in optical disk drive. The lowest weight per channel ever!
1994: Eddy Current Technology participates in an EPRI Round Robin to detect naturally occurring I.D. pits in a tube using the ect MAD 4D Eddy Current System. The four other participants in the Round Robin testing rely on a human Operator. The ect MAD 4D and only one of the four human Operators
meets the acceptance criteria of the test.
1994: After extensive software improvements, Eddy Current Technology renames the ect MAD 4D Eddy Current System to the ect MAD 8D. The ect AutoMAD Software is introduced with the capability of analyzing all the data from a single tube and reporting to the Operator a list of the 10 deepest defects, all in a fraction of a second.
1999: Eddy Current Technology Incorporated demonstrates virtual frequency technology and frequency transform technology. Virtual frequency technology allows for virtually unlimited frequency channels.
Twenty-five frequency channels are demonstrated. Frequency transform technology is the most
important improvement in the way eddy current signals are viewed, since lissajous figures on impedance planes were introduced in the 1960s. Frequency transforms add a third dimension to the impedance plane, the third dimension being that of frequency.
