Calling notice: NDT Technology Taskforce

16/07/2019

In 2014, the British Institute of Non-Destructive Testing (BINDT) collaborated with the Knowledge Transfer Network (KTN) and wider NDT and condition monitoring (CM) communities to create a report, titled: ‘A landscape for the future of NDT in the UK economy’. This identified the fundamental opportunities and challenges for the NDT and CM industries in the UK and prescribed several key enabling actions as part of its detailed vision for the future needs of the industries over the coming 20 years (the ‘20-year vision’), in order to encourage economic growth, increase public awareness and overcome the barriers that are holding back future developments that advance the use of NDT and CM as a proactive asset management tool, as opposed to a reaction to a failure or
disaster.

The report also highlighted how NDT uses Technology Readiness Levels (TRLs) to explain the status of an NDT application, for example the transition of an idea from an inventor at TRL 1 to an off-the-shelf item that can be used on the shop floor at TRL 9. Within the UK, the Research Centre for Non-Destructive Evaluation (RCNDE) takes technology to TRL 4 and is currently exploring how to obtain government funding to take this to TRL 6. This is funded through a mix of industrial membership fees and government funding. There are a number of Research Technology Organisations (RTOs), such as the Manufacturing Technology Centre (MTC) and The Welding Institute (TWI), that are currently funded by industry subscription fees in order to receive government and EU funding to develop technologies to TRL 6. It can be difficult to go beyond TRL 6 with limits on government funding and fair competition rules that must be adhered to. However, this leaves the industry end-users or equipment manufacturers with a hefty bill to use this technology for new manufacture or for in-service applications.

Some of the difficulties in deploying NDT above TRL 4 from equipment manufacturers, universities and RTOs are:

The lack of experienced NDE personnel who can solve real-world NDT problems and develop NDE technologies. There is plenty of academic and research-based support but very little in terms of experience validation expertise and people who can develop technologies from TRL 4+ in the UK.
The lack of ‘turnkey’ equipment integrators capable of producing an NDT system, for example robotic cells. Existing equipment integrators lack sufficient mass and are often reliant on one or two key personnel with niche skills, for example software programming. Purchasing NDT machines, especially for ultrasonic or eddy current applications, can involve several months of troubleshooting before they are successfully commissioned.
The international, European and UK standards for training NDT personnel require recognised approvals, for example NDT Level 1, 2 and 3 staff. Even taking well-established NDT methods and doing something new with them requires a level of training, which is mandatory according to the international standards. A lack in PCN certification or suitable training courses still exists, even for technologies that have been in use for a long period of time, such as laser ultrasonics, electromagnetic acoustic transducers (EMATs) and eddy current arrays.
The NDT community has not taken advantage of government funding, such as that available through Innovate UK or other grants, as much as it could have done.
There is a lack of manpower to write these proposals and then conduct the development work.
The equipment manufacturers, universities and RTOs do not have a sufficient mass or mix of skills necessary to transform the technology into industry and produce it to survive on the shop floor.
NDT research in the UK is focused on ultrasonics and eddy currents. The majority of NDT carried out involves dye penetrant and X-ray testing, yet there is not much focus on improving these technologies.

Across the industry sectors involved in NDT, such as aerospace, nuclear, oil & gas, rail and construction, several technological capabilities will be considered desirable, including automatic defect sentencing of parts, automation of inspections, inspection under coatings, faster X-ray machines, smaller X-ray heads, small bore pipe inspections, solving how to non-destructively test additive layer manufactured parts, etc.

In conclusion, the NDT and CM sectors should be encouraged to collaborate with industrialists to create an NDT Technology Taskforce. Dr Iain Baillie, NDE Technology Development Lead, Rolls-Royce plc, and BINDT President Elect, summarised: “I would like to encourage end-industrialists that would be willing to collaborate to produce a strategy document for government funding to help make the NDT Technology Taskforce a reality. A great example of the NDT community working together to gain government support is the NDT apprenticeships programme, which was led by BINDT with 20 supporting employers and Rolls-Royce plc as the lead employer. The NDT and CM companies can then liaise with the government on future calls for funding, for example the Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund (ISCF) has allocated funding of £80 million alone for 2019. I think funding of approximately £20 million a year would provide a step change in how NDT is undertaken in the UK. This would fund people to solve real NDE challenges and help to embrace NDT technologies. An objective of the NDT Technology Taskforce could be to obtain a quarter of the funding from industry via a subscription fee that would fund technologies to benefit all, another quarter directly from funded projects from industry and the remaining half from the government.

“The NDT Taskforce would also need to consider what to do in the short/medium term and also address the longer-term strategy. Perhaps industrialists could work with the existing NDT community to improve this or, alternatively, consider a curveball: a 100% focused NDE Technology Centre (I am deliberately not calling it a research centre!). Either way, these entities must have experienced NDE personnel, apprentices, students, designers, programmers, data analysts for Industry 4.0, rapid prototypers, project managers and management willing to do things differently. Completion and choice are ideal drivers for innovation.

“These entities must also form strategic alliances with equipment manufacturers so that when a new ultrasonic robot system is installed, for instance, it is commissioned in under a week and not months. Imagine a truly plug-and-play capability in which any brand of flaw detector can be exchanged for another one, which will be able to interface that with any robot system of our choice. In NDT, we have the power to influence standards and make this happen; let’s make it so!”

For further information or to express an interest, please email: iain.baillie@rolls-royce.com

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