Modal Acoustic Emission (MAE) Testing

The Life Extension process performed by Digital Wave includes cleaning of each tank, visual inspection, MAE testing (detailed below), liner conditioning and labeling. Each Life Extended tank carries an MAE certification sticker that verifies the month and year the tank was tested. The tank must be retested every 5 years from this date to continue service (up until 30 years from the date of manufacture).

Example MAE certification sticker

Through a test process called Modal Acoustic Emission (MAE) testing, Digital Wave can determine whether or not a tank is structurally sound enough to continue service at each testing interval. Think of MAE like a seismograph, an MAE testing system measures waves as they move through a solid. The waves can be used to locate events (fiber fracture, delamination, etc.), tell what event occurred based off wave signatures, and determine severity of said events. Once testing is complete and all data is collected, the data is reviewed for every event that was captured to determine the overall structural integrity of a cylinder. So not only is Digital Wave able to determine if a cylinder is damaged, but they can determine the severity of the damage and even what may have caused the damage. Similarly, seismographs are used determine the location, severity and potential cause of an earthquake.

Date of Manufacture (DOM), listed on each tank. The DOM you see listed online and the Year in the DOM will always match.

When looking at these tanks on Pyramyd Air's website, you will find a Date of Manufacture (DOM) year listed in the title of each tank. You will also see a "Years Remaining" option that will allow you to see the availability of tanks with a specific number of years left. These two dates may not match up, for example, you may see a tank with a DOM of 2000 say "11 years." This is because we do not display online the specific month that the tank was made in. Please keep this in mind, we will always make sure that our stock of tanks has AT LEAST 11 years of life extension left when you see it listed as such. Some may receive tanks with 11 years and 9 months of life remaining, some may receive tanks with 11 years and 3 months, but ALL WILL HAVE AT LEAST 11 years (or whatever time remaining is displayed).

Click here to learn more about MAE testing