TROY, MI-Test Equipment Distributors (TED), a provider of nondestructive testing equipment and services, serving the automotive, aerospace and other industries, names Rick Ballinger vice president.

ALBUQUERQUE, NM-Illinois Tool Works Inc., a designer and producer of engineered components, equipment, consumable systems and specialty products, announces the purchase of Albuquerque, NM-based Quasar International Inc., the inventor of process compensated resonant testing (PCRT), an NDT method.

PRINCETON JUNCTION, NJ-Mistras Group Inc., a provider of nondestructive testing products and services, announces that Conam Inspection & Engineering Services Inc. received Nadcap (National Aerospace & Defense Contractors Accreditation Program) accreditation at its Heath, OH, facility. Also, Conam’s Signal Hill, CA, facility received recognition for outstanding leading and lagging safety indicator performance at ExxonMobil’s Torrance, CA, refinery in 2006.

Alloy identification and analysis is an essential aspect of numerous industrial applications, ranging from scrap metal recycling to the manufacture of special steels for aircraft engines. X-ray fluorescence (XRF) spectrometry is one method that can be used for alloy analysis. The advantages of XRF have established the technique as an industry standard.

Used to check material uniformity or processing treatment, most hardness tests employed in quality control applications yield numerical values based on a material’s resistance to indentation under the conditions imposed by the particular test. Resistance to scratching and the measurement of the amount of energy absorbed by a material when struck by a falling object also are measures of hardness.

Titan Metal Fabricators Inc. (Camarillo, CA), a designer and manufacturer of heat exchangers, pressure vessels and related products for the steel, pharmaceutical and chemical industries, was commissioned to construct a 90-foot-long, 5-foot-diameter pressurized column for a customer. The column was to be used for the containment of pressurized hydrochloric acid at a high temperature. Before the column could be delivered to the field, it had to undergo leak testing that would verify its conformity to applicable requirements of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) and stringent customer demands.

For more than a hundred years, industrial manufacturers have been using film-based radiographic techniques (RT) for a full range of inspection needs, from aircraft testing to weld qualification. But in today’s digital world, radiographers are seeking more efficient methods of accomplishing the inspection cycle by using computed and digital technologies for nondestructive testing.

Two Vector 2-D eddy current inspection instruments from GE Inspection Technologies (Huerth, Germany) are helping Montupet (Livonia, MI) to maintain the high quality manufacturing standards involved in the production of aluminum cylinder heads at its Belfast factory. By using the Vector 2-Ds to provide 100% inspection, Montupet is ensuring that it adheres to its rigorous quality policy.

Whether for quality control in the manufacturing environment or for ensuringthe integrity of in-service structures or components, in all sectors of industry,accurate, reliable and repeatable inspection is a vital tool. There are manyinspection modalities and no single technique offers a comprehensive solutionto all inspection needs. However, ultrasonics is probably the most flexible of all modalities.

The new ASTM standard for scratch adhesion testing, ASTM C1624, covers the determination of the adhesion strength and failure modes of hard, thin ceramic coatings on metal or ceramic substrates. Scratch testers can be used for industrial quality control as well as scientific research. They should allow both lightly skilled operators and more experienced personnel to use the instrument to characterize the mechanical properties of Physical Vapor Deposition (PVD) or Chemical Vapor Deposition (CVD) coatings.