As pipelines are safety relevant parts the demanding international quality standards require a hundred percent quality inspection of the welding lines. During the welding process a broad variety of defects like porosities or cracks can occur. An undiscovered failure can lead to severe consequences and liability charges for manufacturers. Therefore, it is necessary to inspect welding lines on pipes and tanks through extensive non-destructive testing (NDT). Over decades these tests have been done by analogue technique by exposing X-ray films (RT). In the last 10 – 15 years it became more and more common to use Digital Radiography (DR). This modern approach helps to achieve the quality control and achieving requirements, while providing cost reduction through a high degree of automation.
VisiConsult X-ray System & Solutions GmbH has developed a completely new setup incorporating new high-tech materials for digital flat panels. Instead of using a massive steel boom a carbon fiber tube is used. The weight of the tube is less than 100 kg, which leads to a very stable and massive lifting device.It also allows innovative cooling systems to operate on the inside. This results in a lighter setup, longer detector lifetime and faster operation principle.
The innovative approach of carbon fiber tubes is only one of many developments made by VisiConsult in the last years. Further X-ray inspections solutions like cabinet systems for the automotive industry, gantry systems for the aerospace industry and mobile systems for the security sector get improved steadily and are distributed all around the globe. As the family company also supplies customized solutions for industrial X-ray inspection, it is the best choice for all manufacturers, which need a sophisticated quality control of their production material.
The whole article „X-ray weld inspection – High-tech meets heavy industry“ from VisiConsult general director Hajo Schulenburg can be read here.