New investment in ultrasonic testing equipment at Lavender International
28/03/2023
Lavender International NDT has rolled out new equipment from manufacturers Sonatest and GB Inspection Systems for its ultrasonic testing courses internationally. 
The state-of-the-art ultrasonic testing (UT) Wave sets by Sonatest will be used in conjunction with custom weld kits by GB Inspection Systems, ensuring that students are at the forefront of ultrasonic testing.
Sonatest is a leading manufacturer of ultrasonic inspection equipment globally. With innovative product design, Sonatest products are guided by the company’s values of simplicity, capability and reliability.
Lavender has acquired a fleet of innovative Wave sets from Sonatest, which has a customisable interface with ray-tracing capabilities. The scan plan can reproduce complex geometries, such as curved surfaces and T-joints. With the new Wave 1.8 update released last year, this is a perfect time to learn ultrasonic testing with Lavender International.
The touchscreen display boasts an intelligent algorithm that makes the distinction between couplant and finger. It is the mindful touches that Sonatest has put into designing the Wave that make a big difference to the user-friendly experience that will empower students to test efficiently and focus on learning integral techniques within the courses.
“I find that they are extremely helpful in terms of helping the students visualise what we are trying to achieve with ultrasonic testing; everything is really intuitive,” said Kane Wingrove, who is an Ultrasonic Testing Tutor at Lavender International NDT. GB Inspection has a notable reputation for offering quality products and services and, with over 12 years of collaboration, Lavender has a long-established working relationship with the company.
To complement the new UT Waves, Lavender International has acquired several sets of GB Inspection’s weld probe kits, which includes twin-crystal, single-crystal, 45°, 60° and 70° probes with accompanying cables. These popular and widely used probes, with high sensitivity and excellent resolution, allow technicians to pin-point the defect on the Sonatest Wave sets to a high degree of accuracy.
The new weld kits will be used globally, from on-site courses in Ireland to the Lavender training facility in Houston, Texas, USA. This enables students to experience and practice on a range of probes, setting them up for their examinations and real-world inspections.
This new investment allows Lavender to offer its most advanced range of ultrasonic testing courses, from the UT welds node to UT castings courses at the training school in the Advanced Manufacturing Park in Sheffield, UK, as well as UT plate and pipe at the training school in Houston, USA. Not to mention, the accelerated work experience programme at Lavender, which allows students to practice on a range of specialised equipment in the Work Experience Laboratory, including the Sonatest Wave sets and GB probes and reduces the students’ required work experience by up to 50%, saving time and money.
With the addition of the new equipment and the support of Lavender’s highly experienced and knowledgeable ultrasonic testing tutors, students attending Lavender’s courses are well-placed to launch and nurture long and bright careers in non-destructive testing.
