Heavy scale inside, no signal or poor signal detected.
(a) Check if the pipe is full of liquid.
(b) Try Z method. If the pipe is close to a wall and it is hard to do Z-method installation, you may work on a vertical or inclined pipe with flow upwards.
(c) Carefully select a good pipe section and fully polish/clean the installation area of the pipe surface. Apply adequate couplant on each transducer bottom and install the transducer properly.
(d) Slowly and slightly move each transducer with respect to each other around the installation point until the maximum signal is found. Be careful that the new installation location is free of scale inside the pipe and that the pipe is concentric (not distorted) so that the sound waves do not bounce outside of the proposed area.
(e) For pipe with thick scale inside or outside, try to knock the scale off, if it is accessible from the inside. (Note: Sometimes this method might not work and sound wave transmission is not possible because of the layer of scale between the transducers and pipe inside wall).