N2709 M

The N2709 M is an electronic pachometer (concrete cover meter), made in the microproduction workshop of the ICE research institute in Bucharest, where it was designed [1]. It was made for INCERC, the building research institute, and regional construction laboratories [1].

ICE’s laboratory for electronic instruments for measuring non-electrical quantities designed approved prototypes for many branches of the economy: strain gauge equipment (some configurations were exported to East Germany in 1971–1974 and 1977–1989), vibration meters, dimensional gauges, ultrasonic non-destructive testers, geophysical well-logging equipment and railway equipment [1]. Its designs were made in series at IEMI (27 types) and at the Precision Mechanics Enterprise (5 types), or in ICE’s microproduction workshop (45 types) for small series and one-off models [1].

Its prospectus describes a portable instrument with built-in batteries that locates the position and depth of the reinforcement in concrete structures, with an analogue meter and an electromagnetic transducer cast in epoxy resin; it reads bars under up to 8 cm of concrete (6 mm bars) or 10 cm (22 mm bars), and separates parallel bars about 10 cm apart [2].