Regular tensile testing is important for checking rigid plastics through the entire manufacturing cycle, from the raw material to the forming process and ultimately the production part.

Deciding whether to perform inspections in-house or to hire contract service providers is not solely a question of upfront investment versus long-term need. For some suppliers, a third-party contract service can also provide assurance that parts have been inspected and approved by an unbiased party.

In the dark ages before the prevalence of LED lighting choices, shop floors had to rely on consumer lighting options, like fluorescent and incandescent bulbs, or later, through xenon bulbs concentrated through fiber optics, according to Bradley Weber, Datalogic’s application engineering leader and industry product specialist for manufacturing.

Flexural strength testing has become increasingly important for plastics—especially composite and carbon fiber-reinforced plastics—as structural parts in the aerospace industry are made from these newer materials.

In the near future, critical aerospace and automotive production parts may indeed come from a 3D printer. The technology’s potential is huge, agrees ASTM Fellow Steven Daniewicz.

For years, traditional thinking was that CMMs belonged in a lab. While in many cases that’s still necessary, many machines work quickly and accurately on the shop floor, offering multiple measurement applications in environments varying in both cleanliness and temperature.

Don’t bite off more than you can chew, and really understand the methodology before attempting a large Six Sigma project. Those are the first words of advice for a Six Sigma novice from Six Sigma Master Black Belt John Vandenbemden.

Ask a quality engineer how they were introduced to metrology or inspection, and they’ll often answer that it wasn’t during their coursework, but in the field. It reflects the manufacturing world’s problem with visibility and messaging, and an important insight into why the term “skills gap” has been a buzzword for several years.

Cost of quality is often misunderstood, improperly measured, and underutilized.

The ASNT Annual Conference gathered NDT professionals from around the world in Nashville.