As nondestructive examination (NDE) continues to evolve as an inspection discipline, so the technologies of NDE evolve to meet new challenges in terms of materials and material geometries to be inspected. This article looks at some of the recent developments in various NDE modalities which are making inspection more accurate and faster while providing data which is easier to interpret.
The early days of NDE saw techniques evolve in radiography, ultrasonics and visual inspection. However, these techniques relied very much on the expertise and data interpretation of the skilled inspectors. Radiography used wet film, which required educated assessment. Ultrasonics used the simple pulse-echo technique which needed experts to understand the A-scans, and subsequent B-scans, C-scans and D-scans on instrument oscilloscopes. Visual inspection formerly consisted of a cursory examination of a weld or boiler to spot any flaws. With advances in computing power, data interpretation to allow accurate and fast sentencing has been extensively developed, mitigating the need for expert assessment with automatically generated, reliable and easy-to-understand inspection results being displayed live to technicians who do not need to achieve “expert” status.