NEW KENSINGTON, PA-West Penn Testing Group , a supplier of material testing services, has been qualified by Siemens to provide automated-DGS, waveform-capture, contact ultrasonic testing (UT) for land-based, gas-turbine components. “This qualification is significant, because it validates our offering of the first alternative to the immersion-UT standard,” says Director of Sales Albert R. Fletcher.

“We have long been the western hemisphere’s only supplier of automated-immersion- waveform UT for large, gas-turbine disks,” he adds. “Now, by adding non-immersion-inspection technology to our portfolio, we can make available another unique, material-testing capability.”

The qualification from Siemens resulted from a two-and-half-year collaboration among the energy-disk forger, West Penn Testing and Siemens. The collaboration focused on test-process improvements, such as reducing test-setup times, enhancing testing repeatability and capturing data regarding both the test and its setup.

West Penn has exited the R&D phase of automated-contact-UT inspection and is now in full-production mode for customers from around the world: It now has large turbine disks in its facility that were produced in Europe and Asia, as well as a steady stream of industrial-gas-turbine components weighing up to 26,000 pounds, produced in North America.

West Penn is an independent, third-party laboratory with a history of pioneering testing technologies in highly competitive markets. The company often works on long-term, collaborative testing initiatives involving commercial organizations at multiple levels of the supply chain, as well as private institutions and government agencies.