When measuring coating thickness, a lift-off probe can be manually placed (on top of the coating) at different locations around the pipe.

Alternatively, the process can be automated by deploying the probe on a pipe scanner, with the probe sprung down so as to maintain contact with the coating.

The same technique can be used to measure pipe ovality by combining the coating thickness measurements with a measurement of the shape of the coating (e.g. using callipers). However, a quicker and more accurate method of measuring pipe ovality is to deploy a lift-off probe around a circular-track.

In this case the probe is not sprung against the coating (or the pipe surface if uncoated). For the method to work, the track must be rigid enough to maintain circularity to a higher degree than the accuracy with which the pipe ovality is to be measured.