Every day, industrial inspectors squeeze cameras into jet engines, power turbines, and aging pipelines — making do with tools that rarely handle every job well. Switch probes and you lose time. Prioritize accuracy and you sacrifice adaptability. For mid-market teams especially, that compromise has long felt unavoidable.
Waygate Technologies is now challenging that assumption.
A single handset, many inspection jobs
The Mentor Flex+ centers its adaptability on a QuickChange interchangeable probe system — a design choice that lets a single handset serve multiple inspection scenarios without requiring separate instruments. Probes come in two diameters: a 4.0 mm option for narrower passages and a 6.1 mm option for broader cavities. A 6.2 mm working channel probe also supports foreign object retrieval, tackling one of the more time-consuming complications inspectors encounter in the field.
The 6.1 mm probe includes a compact camera head designed to navigate tight bend radii efficiently. That geometry matters. Forcing an oversized head through constrained spaces accelerates mechanical wear — a recurring maintenance cost that accumulates quietly over time — so reducing stress on the probe is how Waygate aims to extend equipment life during routine use.
In aerospace and energy, a single facility may contain dozens of asset types with entirely different access geometries. One platform that reconfigures quickly, rather than a bag full of specialized tools, reduces equipment overhead and the time technicians spend switching between setups.
3D point clouds and sub-millimeter accuracy, now in the mid-market
The most technically significant addition is Real3D™ measurement — a capability that generates a dynamic 3D point cloud from borescope imagery. Rather than returning a flat image for a technician to interpret visually, Real3D™ produces quantifiable data: depth readings, surface profiles, and defect dimensions, all at sub-millimeter accuracy.
That level of precision carries real consequences in regulated industries. When an inspector needs to determine whether a crack or surface anomaly exceeds an allowable threshold, a precise measurement supports a defensible pass/fail decision. Estimates based on visual impression alone introduce uncertainty that can compound across an entire inspection program.
Until recently, this kind of measurement capability has largely belonged to higher-budget systems. Bringing Real3D™ into a mid-range product line extends that analytical rigor to teams that previously had to choose between accuracy and affordability — a tradeoff the Mentor Flex+ is designed to eliminate.
Clearer images, smarter orientation
Measurement data is only as useful as the imagery supporting it. The Mentor Flex+ displays output on a large WXGA LCD touchscreen, a wide-format resolution that improves flaw visibility compared to lower-resolution displays. When inspectors are evaluating subtle surface anomalies, display clarity isn’t a secondary concern — it directly affects what gets noticed and what gets missed.
The system incorporates Automatic Adaptive Noise Reduction (ANR), which minimizes visual interference in the captured image. In environments where lighting conditions and surface reflectivity are unpredictable, reducing noise means inspectors spend less time second-guessing what they’re seeing.
Two complementary features address spatial awareness during navigation. The Always-Up gravity sensor provides a real-time indicator of upward direction inside the inspection cavity, while Auto-Rotate mode keeps the display oriented to match the probe’s actual position. Both reduce the cognitive load on operators threading a probe through complex internal geometries — and lower the likelihood of navigation errors that could damage equipment or let a defect go undetected.
From inspection data to actionable intelligence
Capturing good data is only part of the problem. Managing it consistently — and getting it to the right people quickly — is where many inspection programs lose efficiency. The Mentor Flex+ integrates with InspectionWorks, Waygate’s cloud-based platform, which stores data securely and structures it for analysis rather than simply archiving image files.
Menu Directed Inspection (MDI) standardizes the workflow itself. By guiding technicians through predefined inspection steps and automatically tagging data collected at each stage, MDI reduces variability between operators and cuts the administrative work of organizing results after the fact. The Push2IW function then handles data transfer automatically, sending captured results to the InspectionWorks cloud without requiring manual upload steps.
The cumulative effect is a shift in what inspection represents: less a discrete image-capture event, more a continuous feed into a structured decision-making system.
Built to survive the environments it inspects
Industrial inspection tools face the same harsh conditions as the assets they examine. The Mentor Flex+ operates and captures clear images at temperatures up to 100°C (212°F), meaning inspectors don’t need to wait for engines or machinery to cool before beginning work — a meaningful advantage in high-throughput maintenance environments where wait time translates directly into slower turnaround.
The handset is housed in military-grade aluminum with Gorilla Glass and built to MIL-STD-810H specifications, a military standard covering shock, vibration, humidity, and other environmental stressors. That certification reflects durability across varying field conditions, not just controlled settings.
Waygate has positioned the Mentor Flex+ explicitly for the mid-market, where total cost of ownership often drives purchasing decisions as much as raw capability does. With global availability confirmed as of its May 2026 launch, the platform arrives as inspection teams face growing pressure to do more with leaner budgets — and to document that they’ve done it rigorously. Whether it becomes a standard fixture in mid-market programs will depend on how that balance plays out in practice, but the specifications make the argument considerably easier to make.
