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On April 20, three days after a Southwest Airlines Boeing 737-700 experienced an engine failure due to a fractured fan blade, resulting in the death of a passenger, the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration issued an emergency airworthiness directive that requires operators of CFM56-7B engines with more than 30,000 flight cycles to perform a one-time ultrasonic inspection of all 24 fan blades to detect cracking.

The aerospace industry is increasingly adopting metal additive manufacturing for both flight safety-critical aircraft parts and non-critical flight parts. The approach offers a shorter development cycle, which means products can be developed quicker and design changes easily incorporated. 

I was a group quality manager for an engineering company that made aero-engine parts. As part of the culture change program, I gave a presentation on examples of aircraft crashes and causes. A poorly machined blisk that caused an in-flight turbine failure, an oil-pipe with a thin wall in one area that cracked and leaked causing a fire, and an incident I personally saw, the crash of a military helicopter in Germany which was due to a series of quality failures. 

The push for increased fuel efficiencies has pushed the aerospace industry to develop stronger and lighter materials while simultaneously increasing component longevity. In turn, these new designs, materials, and processes require verification.

The importance of nondestructive testing training cannot be overstated. What nondestructive testing technicians do every day has a huge impact on the lives around them. Well trained and qualified technicians provide accurate results for prevention of failures in components or structures. 

X-ray fluorescence is an elemental analysis tool that has been a mainstay of test labs for decades. A versatile NDT method that demands only minimal sample prep and can be run by novice operators, it is perhaps most valued for delivering accurate results quickly. Today, evolving XRF capabilities are moving this quality assurance workhorse into critical new roles in a widening spectrum of industries.

Eddy current displacement sensors combine several advantages. They provide high precision and resolution on a wear-free, noncontact basis. They are resistant to external influences such as dirt, pressure and fluctuating temperatures and therefore are ideally suited to harsh industrial environments.