Leak Tests

Leak testing is a form of non-destructive testing used in pressurized or evacuated systems and components with the purpose of detecting and locating fluid losses. It is also used to measure the index or leak rate of the fluid, the word leak refers to to the physical hole that exists in the equipment, it does not refer to the amount of fluid that passes through that hole. A leak can be a crack, fissure, hole or passage that, contrary to what is intended, admits or lets out water, air or another fluid.

The leak test method can be performed using four fundamental techniques: the bubble test, the pressure change test, the halogen detector test, and the helium mass spectrometer technique.

There are other techniques that emerge from these four fundamentals, such as the bubble test with a vacuum box, the bubble test in components with internal pressure, the mass spectrometer with a detector probe (sniffer probe), the mass spectrometer with a tracer probe. (tracer probe), the mass spectrometer for measuring the leak rate “hood technique” (component under pressure), the mass spectrometer for measuring the leak rate “hood technique” (component under vacuum), the measurement of change of pressure (absolute pressure), measurement of pressure change with a reference chamber, measurement of pressure change in components under vacuum, measurement of volumetric and mass flow, hydrostatic, pneumatic testing and hydropneumatic testing.