A Fast and Low-Cost “Mouse” for Analyzing the Bonding State of Wall Coverings

The Non-Destructive investigations used until now to detect the presence of detachments in wall coverings are hardly executable in situ. For these motivations, we designed an automatic system, similar to a “mouse”, portable, battery powered, and with a clear, fast, and accurate read-out. It use the technique of detection based on the “stiffness measure” of the cover: the surface is hit with a small “hammer” to measure the impact time. The aim of this work was to develop a system that, starting from the basic concepts known in literature, and making use of a powerful but economical 32 bit Arduino-like board, allows to obtain a pocket tester easily usable by any maintenance technician, with a cost of the device very low, while maintaining an efficient measurement methodology.