Advanced nondestructive evaluation for welded joints

New legislation, material choices, and the complexity of product designs, have increased the demand for the inspection of manufactured parts and their welded joints. This driver, witnessed across many industrial sectors, underpins growth in nondestructive evaluation (NDE). NDE in-process directly at the point of manufacture is clearly identified by the UK research center in nondestructive evaluation (RCNDE) industrial members in their future requirements.

Traditionally fusion welding of manufactured components and quality control inspection of such welding are distinctly separate processes in the supply chain, which ultimately limit productivity, throughput and increase rework. Primarily due to the risk of delayed cracking, current safety critical NDE standards state that inspections should occur only certain hours after welding. This chapter explores the opportunity to combine welding and inspection directly at the point of manufacture, ultimately addressing the above challenges and producing superior, globally efficient fabrications.

Automated in-process NDE is directly relevant to industrial sectors that readily encompass safety critical fusion welding at the point of manufacture and asset modification/repair including nuclear, aerospace, oil and gas, marine, defense and high-value manufacturing. It also has cross-cutting applicability to arc-based additive manufacturing operations (Wire & Arc Additive Manufacture (WAAM), etc.), which are seeing increasing industry uptake in large area/volume fabrications requiring high deposition rates beyond the capability of the current popular powder-based systems.