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Instrumentation Services

The HIF sells, rents, repairs, calibrates, evaluates, and designs hydrologic equipment and instrumentation for the USGS; other Federal, State, and local agencies; academic facilities; and private industry.

USGS staff member examines inventory in bins while holding a barcode scanner and tablet.
A HIF warehouse staff member uses a barcode scanner and tablet to identify and log stocked warehouse items. This ensures that an accurate inventory of items and stock quantity is accounted for and readily available to fill orders so other USGS offices can fulfill their mission in a timely manner. (Credit: Joanne Jones, USGS)

Sales and Rentals: The HIF rents and sells quality-assured hydrologic equipment only to the USGS and other Federal and State agencies.

Repairs: The HIF provides repair services on many types of electronic and mechanical hydrologic equipment and instruments only to the USGS and other federal and state agencies.

Training: The HIF offers several hydrologic instrument training courses to USGS as well as other federal and state agencies. Courses provide lectures and hands-on experience with equipment and instruments.

Calibrations: The HIF offers calibration and verification services for a variety of hydrologic instruments including most types of water velocity meters, water quality sensors and water level sensors.

Instrument evaluations: The HIF evaluates the ability of instrumentation and equipment to meet USGS requirements and documents the testing in reports using laboratory facilities and field tests.

Application design: The HIF has the ability to design and prototype new instrumentation applications for hydrologic data collection activities. The HIF can also take existing instrumentation and design interfaces or mounting structures or even combine instrumentation to build complete systems to meet the hydrographer’s needs. The HIF can preprogram many devices for you ahead of time. Sometimes a piece of equipment used in hydrologic data collection activities can be improved or enhanced to make the hydrographer's job easier. Working with the HIF, a hydrographer can get ideas turned into changes to equipment that will benefit everyone who uses that equipment.

HIF staff members transports a crate of USGS equipment using a forklift