How to select videoscopes

Visual Testing (VT) has become a common testing method in NDT. It has been widely used in various fields such as automotive manufacturing, aerospace, petrochemical, pharmaceutical machinery, electric power, etc. It has become a necessary method of quality control.

With the wide application and increasing demands of industrial videoscopes, what problems should we pay attention to when purchasing videoscopes? In the face of various brands, different price of products in the market, how should we identify and seek reliable products that meet our needs?

1. Demand positioning: at present, industrial endoscopes are mainly electronic videoscopes. The prices range on the market is from several hundred (rigid videoscope or USB videoscope) to thousands of dollars (flexible videoscope or articulating videoscope). During the purchasing, we need to consider our inspection needs and budget to select the suitable products.

2. Three main factors determining the price of videoscope: resolution, diameter and length. The higher the camera pixels, the higher product price. The smaller probe diameter and the longer the tube, the more expensive the product.

3. Articulating control method: It commonly has two methods to control the probe articulation, motor-driven articulation or mechanical-control articulation. There is no difference in function that both ways can realize 360° all-way articulation. Motor-driven articulation is labor saving, automatic reset after probe bending with short delay. Mechanical-control articulation is more flexible and easy control, reset with no delay. In short, these two methods are not much different. People can select according to their own preference.