In October, I had the privilege of attending Advanced Engineering 2025, held at Birmingham’s National Exhibition Centre (NEC). The event is a must for all those interested in new technologies.
Events such as Advanced Engineering highlight just how far we have come and how fast we are still moving. With over 400 exhibitors and 9800 industry professionals, the show spanned composites, additive manufacturing, automation, testing and quality control.
For a non-destructive testing (NDT) professional, walking through such a show offers a glimpse into the future of inspection, one where testing is seamlessly integrated within advanced manufacturing systems. Emerging technologies such as additive manufacturing, net-zero composite production and digital twin implementation are redefining inspection requirements. These innovations demand new approaches to NDT, including real-time monitoring, predictive analytics and hybrid NDT techniques that combine methods such as ultrasound and thermography with artificial intelligence (AI)-driven data analysis.
The exhibition’s focus on digitalisation, sustainability and smart factories also pointed to the changing role of the NDT technician. In tomorrow’s industry, we will not merely react to defects but anticipate them, designing inspection into the production process.
Having spent two decades working as an NDT engineer on Concorde in a previous life, I have seen first-hand how the story of engineering materials is one of constant evolution, from the fibrous strength of wrought iron to the heat-defying superalloys of today. After disappearing down a rabbit hole on YouTube (for endless hours, according to my loving wife), it became apparent that each leap in materials science brings with it a new set of inspection challenges, demanding that technicians understand not only how to detect flaws, but why materials behave the way they do under stress, heat and time.
The age of wrought iron: a foundation in material science
Long before stainless steel or aluminium alloys, engineers relied on wrought iron, a material celebrated for its resilience. Produced through a ‘puddling’ process that removed impurities by manual stirring, wrought iron developed a fibrous structure through repeated hammering and rolling. Embedded within this matrix were strands of iron silicate slag, which, rather than weakening the metal, formed a barrier against corrosion.
This microstructure explains why wrought iron structures such as the Eiffel Tower have endured for centuries. The slag fibres act like built-in corrosion inhibitors, stabilising the oxide layer and preventing deep rust penetration. As an NDT professional, understanding the basic elements of such microstructural phenomena is critical in our understanding of corrosion resistance, crack propagation and grain alignment; all dictate how flaws manifest and how signals behave in NDT methods such as ultrasonic testing (UT).
The transition to carbon and stainless steels
As steelmaking industrialised, carbon steel replaced wrought iron. Although stronger and more consistent, its lack of slag fibres made it more vulnerable to rust/corrosion. For NDT specialists, this meant more frequent inspection and the adoption of protective coatings and galvanisation techniques.
Then came the 20th-century breakthrough: stainless steel, an alloy infused with chromium. The key innovation lay in its passive chromium-oxide layer, a self-healing film that shields the metal from oxygen and moisture. For inspectors, this ushered in a new challenge: the very corrosion resistance that made stainless steel valuable also made defect detection harder, as surface indications became more subtle and required more sophisticated imaging techniques and advanced analysis through such things as revised eddy current (EC) and ultrasonic analysis.
The Concorde era: Hiduminium and the supersonic age
By the time I joined the aerospace industry, the pace of materials innovation had reached the skies. Working on Concorde, the supersonic icon of its age, offered a front-row seat to the remarkable capabilities of Hiduminium-RR.58, a high-strength aluminium-copper alloy designed to maintain integrity at 120°C (248°F).
At Mach 2, Concorde’s airframe faced continuous thermal stress and vibration. Each flight stretched and contracted the fuselage, requiring rigorous NDT regimes using radiography, ultrasonic inspection and penetrant testing methods and associated techniques. Understanding the metallurgy of Hiduminium, its grain orientation, heat treatment and fatigue behaviour, was essential to the design engineers of the day who developed the associated NDT techniques capable of revealing the required in-service and manufacturing flaws. An undetected crack at a rivet line or bonded joint could prove catastrophic. It was here that the fusion of materials science and inspection discipline became not just desirable, but essential.
The new frontier: additive manufacturing and superalloys
Fast-forward to 2025 and the pace of advancement has only accelerated. Materials once considered science fiction are now being printed, not forged. At the forefront is the GRX-810 from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), a 3D printable oxide-dispersion-strengthened superalloy capable of withstanding 1093°C (2000°F). Reinforced with nanoscale yttrium oxide particles, GRX-810 is twice as strong and much more durable at high temperature than the best printed alloys of today.
For the NDT community, this represents a seismic shift. Additive manufacturing introduces complex internal geometries, non-uniform cooling rates and embedded lattice structures that challenge conventional inspection. Ultrasonic waves scatter differently in these materials and porosity or micro-cracks may develop deep within printed layers. Therefore, understanding the metallurgy, manufacturing process and heat-treatment profile becomes as vital as operating the inspection equipment itself.
As with Concorde’s Hiduminium, the new generation of alloys demands a new generation of NDT thinking, integrating sensors into manufacturing, using AI-assisted defect recognition and employing in-process monitoring during 3D printing.
The essential link: materials knowledge and inspection skill
My years on Concorde taught me that successful inspection depends as much on understanding materials as on mastering the NDT methods, techniques and instruments used to deploy said techniques. A technician without a grasp of metallurgy risks misinterpreting signals; conversely, one with materials insight can identify the root cause of anomalies, whether a fatigue crack, inclusion or heat-affected zone.
This principle remains central. Whether dealing with composites, additive metals or hybrid structures, the NDT community must bridge materials science, digital technology and process control. The inspection profession is evolving from a reactive craft to a proactive science, one that partners with design and production to ensure that as materials evolve, safety and reliability evolve with them.
Looking ahead
From wrought iron’s slag fibres to Concorde’s Hiduminium and now to NASA’s GRX-810, the journey of materials mirrors the progress of human ingenuity. Each new alloy or process reshapes how we build, fly and explore and redefines how we inspect.
I would like to conclude that Advanced Engineering 2025 is more than a trade show; it is a snapshot of this continuum, a meeting place where past experience meets future innovation. For those of us who have seen how vital material knowledge is to inspection excellence, it reaffirms a timeless truth: to test the future, we must first understand the material world it is made from. I remain in awe and look forward to seeing you there in 2026.
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