According to ASTM E1316-17a and NET.net, a flaw is defined as ‘‘an imperfection or discontinuity that may be detectable by nondestructive testing and is not necessarily rejectable.”
The dye penetrant method of inspection is a nondestructive test for defects open to the surface. It may be used on such materials as aluminum, magnesium, brass, copper, cast iron, steel, stainless steel, carbides, stellite, certain plastics and ceramics.
First, a little history. The alternating current field measurement (ACFM) nondestructive testing technique was developed in the ‘80s to detect and estimate penetration depth of fatigue cracks in underwater welded tubular intersections of offshore oil platforms.
Computed radiography, a form of X-ray imaging, has been embraced widely by many major manufacturing companies. Its application is now core for testing within a range of sectors including aerospace, oil and gas, industrial gas turbines, medical implants and prosthetics.
Leak testing is a method of product quality control that identifies manufacturing inconsistencies by porosity testing a manufactured part or system leaks.
Headquartered near Cleveland, OH, Orbit is a Nadcap and ISO 17025 accredited laboratory that also operates out of four other satellite inspection facilities across Ohio, Pennsylvania and New York.
Traditional nondestructive inspections are performed much the same for additive parts, but there are some new limitations introduced by the AM methods.
Additive manufacturing (AM) is one of the hottest and most revolutionary processes to come along in many years. The thought of popping a design into a machine and having a functional part come out the other side was science fiction a generation ago. We are nowhere near the Star Trek replicators, but we are closing that gap.
Each day, facilities across the globe turn to nondestructive testing (NDT) to verify the reliability of parts or materials without causing damage. One of the most popular of these methods is magnetic particle inspection (MPI)—a form of NDT that uses magnetism to detect surface and near-surface defects, cracks, seams or stress points in ferromagnetic materials before parts and materials are placed into service.
A major milestone in Digital NDT was reached this February— the American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) E07.11 subcommittee published the new ASTM standard E3147-18 on DICONDE Interoperability. This new standard should help further establish DICONDE in Digital NDT environments and increase the benefits of its use.