Scottish start-up Novosound transforming NDT market
23/11/2020
Scottish technology start-up Novosound has launched its range of non-destructive testing (NDT) products, providing a technological breakthrough that will evolve how industry inspections take place.
Novosound’s products, which have all been developed and produced in Scotland, can solve the issues facing the NDT market it is claimed, with current technology hindered by poor signal conduction with sensors unable to fit curved surfaces or unusual geometries, an inability to work at high temperatures and the difficulties of manufacturing reliable high-resolution ultrasound probes at scale from ceramics and polymers.
In launching its three new products, the Kelpie, Belenus and Nebula, all named after Celtic legends, Novosound will disrupt the way the NDT market operates across sectors such as oil & gas, renewables, energy and aerospace, potentially saving companies millions of pounds in downtime.
Dr Dave Hughes, Novosound Founding Director and Chief Technology Officer, said: “The technology we have developed is the dawning of a new era in NDT, saving organisations time and money, as well as improving safety.
“When the COVID-19 pandemic struck, we looked at how we could take all the learnings from taking our prototypes to global trade shows and encapsulate this into these new products.
“Today is not just an exciting day for Novosound, it is a proud moment being able to bring our two years of research and development to the marketplace and we genuinely feel our range of products can change the way businesses carry out their testing.”
The three products launched are:
- The Kelpie, which carries out corrosion mapping or wall thickness measurements via its innovative thin-film probes and can inspect pipes regardless of their size or across unusually shaped geometries
- The Belenus, a matchbox-sized sensor for continuous corrosion monitoring in higher temperature enclosed environments. It enables weekly data capture instead of the current annual inspection that most firms carry out
- The Nebula, which enables the continuous monitoring of results to be remotely reported via the cloud.
Traditional non-destructive testing can be time consuming due to the need to shut down the supporting infrastructure and the cost of personnel to carry out the job, but Novosound’s technology allows work to be carried out more efficiently and cost effectively. Dr Hughes also believes that being able to manufacture the Kelpie, Belenus and Nebula at the company’s base in Newhouse can only benefit customers.
He added: “Because we do everything in house it protects not only ours but also the customers’ supply chain with efficient, completed inspections. There is often a tendency to err on the side of caution when it comes to modernisation in the NDT industry and the need to evolve has been spoken about for many years. One of the constrictors to growth in this area has been the lack of technology that is suitable and simple enough to solve the problem, but we have developed that.
“Scotland has always been a global technology leader and is a country that prides itself on its ingenuity and has created everyday items that we take for granted. I like to describe Novosound as a Silicon Valley start-up in Scotland and we have ambitions for the company to be the next great Scottish export.”
With the backing of private equity investment, in just two years Novosound has grown into a company that employs more than 30 people at its base just outside Glasgow, while it has also attracted customers from around Europe and North America.
The launch follows another recent success for the University of the West of Scotland spin-out company. Dr Hughes was last month named IoD Scotland Director of the Year – Start-Up, while Novosound also pulled off a coup by appointing Dr Derek Mathieson, former Baker Hughes Chief Marketing and Technology Officer, as Chair.
In conclusion, Dr Hughes said: “Being able to appoint someone with Derek’s international business experience, particularly in the oil & gas sector, is huge for us. Derek coming on board, coupled with the launch, certainly points to an exciting future for Novosound and the NDT industry.”
www.novosound.net
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