MOUNTAIN VIEW, CA — Stringent regulations for safety and emission control are steering the development of the nondestructive testing equipment and inspection services market in the transportation industry.
The emphasis on lightweighting and the resulting use of advanced materials are changing requirements for manufacturing and maintenance inspection, accelerating NDT adoption. Even though the transportation sector will lag behind energy industries in terms of NDT market potential, its steady growth and higher acceptance of sophisticated technology will fuel revenues.
Recent analysis from Frost & Sullivan, Analysis of the NDT Inspection Services and NDT Equipment Market in the Transportation Industry, finds that the total market earned revenues of $1.93 billion in 2014 and estimates this to reach $2.75 billion in 2019.
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While the global NDT market for the transportation industry has remained fairly insulated from the economic slowdown, equipment and service providers in Europe continue to face the challenges stemming from the Eurozone debt crisis. However, Asia-Pacific, the Middle East, Africa and Latin America are proving to be growth hubs for the NDT transportation market.
"The expansion of the aerospace industry in these emerging regions is a significant driver for the demand of NDT equipment and inspection services," said Frost & Sullivan Manufacturing 4.0 Research Analyst Apoorva Ravikrishnan. "The automotive industry too has recovered remarkably in the last three years, and the spike in vehicle production rates and investments in new production facilities bode well for the market."
Convergence between digital technology platforms and NDT techniques will give rise to newer opportunities in the NDT industry by 2020. For instance, "smart" inspection is a novel paradigm that will facilitate the development of innovative NDT products through the integration of NDT techniques with augmented reality, robotics, big data analytics and virtualization.
Sensor-based permanent monitoring will also make rapid headway, replacing periodic inspection, especially in the aerospace and railway sectors. Permanent monitoring will enable original equipment manufacturers to proactively prevent defects and avert up to 80 percent of field failures.
"The advent of the Industrial Internet of Things will further transform business models in the NDT space," anticipated Ravikrishnan. "Therefore, NDT inspection service providers that extend their portfolio to include engineering services will be able to widen their presence in the transportation domain."
