A review of hand held coating thickness gauges

Abstract

When in 1947 Elcometer launched the 101 it was the first hand held coating thickness gauge, the first of thousands; the launch was followed by a tidal wave of competitors, it is to the credit of this very British company that they are still, forty years later, one of the market leaders; it is even more remarkable that the original instrument, with only a few cosmetic changes is still liked and bought by their customers. In the intervening years many new techniques for coating thickness measurement have emerged, some simple, many complicated and the market has divided into fairly clearly defined sectors with unit prices as diverse as the intrinsic value of the end products. As yet no one instrument meets all needs.