Non-destructive Testing: A Guidebook for Industrial ...

1 TRAINING COURSE SERIES No. 9 Non-destructive Testing: A Guidebook for IndustrialManagement andQuality Control Personnel3 1-05 INTERNATIONAL ATOMIC ENERGY AGENCY, VIENNA, 1999 TRAINING COURSE SERIES No. 9 Non-destructive Testing: A Guidebook for IndustrialManagement andQuality Control PersonnelINTERNATIONAL ATOMIC ENERGY AGENCY, VIENNA, 1999 The originating Section of this publication in the IAEA was: Industrial Applications and Chemistry SectionInternational Atomic Energy AgencyWagramer Strasse Box 100A-1400 Vienna, AustriaNON-DESTRUCTIVE TESTING: A Guidebook FORINDUSTRIAL MANAGEMENT AND quality CONTROL PERSONNELIAEA, VIENNA, 1999 IAEA-TCS-9 IAEA, 1999 Printed by the IAEA in AustriaJanuary 1999 FOREWORDThe introduction and application of Non-destructive testing (NDT) in industry is grosslymisrepresented and misunderstood.

2 It is often said that introduction of this expensivetechnology does not give any tangible returns or at least does not give returns proportional tothe investment made. The facts, however, are exactly opposite to this notion and thinking. Infact, NDT, when appropriately applied, gives tremendous returns by way of savings in scrapby lowering the ultimate rates of rejection, saving valuable manufacturing time, increasing theoverall quality and reliability of manufactured goods, providing an extension of plant lifethrough preventive maintenance, saving unnecessary shutdowns, particularly through in-service inspection, and enhancement of a particular industry's reputation and consequentincreased sales and profits.

3 Therefore, even from a purely commercial viewpoint, NDT is ofutmost importance for an Industrial concern. The additional considerations of NDT's role insafety, failure and consequent accident prevention leave no doubt at all about the value andneed of is this point that needs to be fully appreciated by the Industrial managers and decisionmakers at all levels. Management ought to understand in quite an unambiguous way that theirproducts can only survive in the highly competitive markets of today if they have the adequateand optimum quality . This quality can be built into the manufactured goods only if suitablemeasures and methods of quality control are employed and that the most suitable methods inmost situations are the Non-destructive testing shows that in many cases of Industrial decision making, proper knowledge ofvarious aspects of a particular technology plays an important role.

4 Therefore, if positivedecisions are desired to be taken in favour of introducing NDT in industry in any country, itsdecision makers should be properly equipped with knowledge and information about this areaof technology. It was with this thinking and background that training courses were organized,first in Pakistan, with the help of IAEA assistance. Each course was of two weeks durationand covered quite comprehensively various aspects of NDT technology. The topics selectedincluded NDT methods, their applications, capabilities and limitations; economic andadministrative aspects of NDT; codes and standards; quality assurance; education, trainingand certification of NDT personnel and sources of information in NDT.

5 Variousmanufacturing processes and the typical defects associated with them were also reviewed. Thecourse also included demonstration practicals on all the basic five methods of NDT and, tokeep the managers interested and fully occupied, a token examination was given on the lastday. These courses were very well received and appreciated by all the participants, most ofwhom were the middle level managers in their industries. One indicator of the success andthe interest it generated was the demands from these managers for training of their staff inNDT. No doubt that two weeks proved to be too long a period for which the managementpersonnel could afford to be away from their establishments.

6 Nevertheless, the topics coveredhave been found to be quite informative and of fundamental importance for impressing uponthe management personnel the importance and need for NDT. A shorter version of this can beextracted from these topics and given in the form of executive management seminars. It hastherefore been considered appropriate to compile the lectures delivered at these courses in theform of a book such as to make it suitable for use in the other countries of the region, as wellas other regions of the IAEA expert for these training courses held in Pakistan was J. Zimhelt of Canada and thecontents of some of the sections are based on his lectures and are duly acknowledged.

7 Someportions of the book have been directly adopted from the Training Course Series No. 3entitled Industrial Radiography: Manual for the Syllabi Contained in IAEA-TECDOC-628,"Training Guidelines in Non-destructive Testing Techniques" (IAEA, 1992). The remainingsections were developed by Khan and his colleagues at the National Centre for NDT(NCNDT) of the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission. Different sections of the book werethen sent to the national co-ordinators of the NDT sub-project of RCA in the region of Asiaand the Pacific for their comments and suggestions.

8 The draft was then finalized byincorporating the recommended changes. During the process of compilation of the trainingnotes guidance and support were provided by a large number of persons, especially from theNCNDT, the OAEP, Thailand and the RCA Co-ordinator's office at the IAEA. The IAEA wishes to express its appreciation to all those who have contributed to the production of thesetraining course notes and to the governments and organizations whose financial and technicalsupport made this publication NOTEIn preparing this publication for press, staff of the IAEA have made up the pages from theoriginal manuscripts).

9 The views expressed do not necessarily reflect those of the IAEA, thegovernments of the nominating Member States or the nominating the text names of Member States are retained as they were when the text use of particular designations of countries or territories does not imply any judgement bythe publisher, the IAEA, as to the legal status of such countries or territories, of their authorities andinstitutions or of the delimitation of their mention of names of specific companies or products (whether or not indicated asregistered) does not imply any intention to infringe proprietary rights.

10 Nor should it be construed asan endorsement or recommendation on the part of the THE IMPORTANCE OF Non-destructive TESTING The scope of NDT Need and definition of NDT Methods of NDT Relationship to destructive testing The applications of NDT Applications in design Applications in manufacturing quality Applications for in-service inspection