Post #1 Safety in NDI- What is NDI/NDT?

Welcome to NDI.  Many people do not know about NDI or even what NDI is. It is a crucial part of an inspection process for aircraft or for any metal that is going to be under large amounts for stress loads. What dose NDI stand for? Non Destructive Inspection, meaning that an assembly of many components is left intact and we are able to inspect inside the metal or internally without disassembly of the part. Case in point, take a land mover Detroit diesel engine. It is very large and extremely heavy. To pull an engine of this size and the costs associated with it are very costly. In order to save steps and prevent wasted time diagnosing problems they call in an x-ray team. Suppose this engine is suspected to have a cracked cylinder.  An x-ray is performed on the area and an x-ray film is produced with the image area of interest. The film does confirm not only wear the suspected in the area but also reviled other areas that need attention and the engine being repair.

There are six main techniques used and there are: Eddy Current, Ultrasound, Magnetic Particle, Liquid Pentrant, Visual, and x-ray. I’ll explain each later.

NDI has been around NDT has been practiced for decades. Over the years, technological advances spurred rapid developments in techniques and instrumentation. It is impossible to identify exactly when this science began; however, we know that it has been evolving for centuries. For example, blacksmiths used a sonic technique (listening to a ring of different metals) to shape them as desired (Zuuk,2011).

The roots of modern NDT began prior to the 1920s, but awareness of different methods truly came in the 1920s. During this era there was an awareness of some of the magnetic particle tests (MT) and X-radiography (RT) [in the medical field (Zuuk,2011).

            The reason I choose NDI is because I have been involved in several military crash investigations where NDI was used to determine suspected failures in aircraft structures. It is a field that Safety is number one priority in aviation for Human safety in aircraft but it also pertains to our rail systems, petroleum, and piping industries. This field is the first line of defense or investigation in aviation or industry insuring the engineer integrity is sound.

Reference

Zuuk. (2011, Janurary 01). History of non-destructive testing. Retrieved from http://www.zuukinspection.com/ndtnde/history-of-non-destructive-testing/