60 Seconds on NDT - Doosan Babcock
Ahead of our Structural Integrity Design and Validation Technologies: A Joined up Approach, the Institution of Mechanical Engineers spoke with Fraser Hardie, Technical Authority for NDT at Doosan Babcock, and speaker at the conference.
Could you briefly explain your role and involvement in structural integrity assessment and/or NDT?
I am Doosan Babcock’s Technical Authority for NDT, responsible for NDT governance across the company. I also manage a team of NDT technicians and engineers providing routine and specialist NDT technology. We work closely with colleagues in metallurgy and structural integrity disciplines and it is our responsibility to ensure correct and best practice NDT is applied to provide accurate and meaningful results to enable informed structural integrity calculations and decisions.
What is the number one challenge for those using or benefitting from these technologies in today’s current market?
It is doubtful that many of the end users/plant operators fully understand the level of quality and reliability of NDT that they purchase. There is too much importance placed on code compliance and not enough focus on ensuring NDT regimes are fit for purpose.
What is the most exciting development in this field at the moment, either within your company or in the industry in general?
The replacement of radiography with UT is a very progressive initiative, with UT being more conducive to structural integrity engineering. The ability of UT to inspect ever thinner materials has been a game changer for our company. Full matrix capture (FMC) is also an exciting technology development that will significantly increase the accuracy and usefulness of PAUT over the next few years.
Where do you see the future of NDT applications and approaches to structural integrity assessment going over the next 5 – 10 years?
FMC will be a significant development towards improving PAUT measurements. Eddy current arrays are also now emerging and could revolutionise and improve how surface inspection is performed. Monitoring technologies are also gaining prevalence as a partial replacement for in-service NDT, or at least a way of reducing ISI.
What are you most looking forward to by attending and presenting at Structural Integrity Design and Validation Technologies 2018?
It’s a platform to get across a message that I feel strongly about. Also a good forum for learning and sharing.
About the conference
Structural Integrity Design and Validation Technologies 2018 will bring together experts from across the field of Non Destructive Testing (NDT), structural integrity, operations and maintenance. Attendees will gain an in-depth understanding of NDT in context of different applications through various cross industry case studies, including Oil & Gas, Power and Rail. Join to learn about new and existing techniques, NDT reliability and validation, as well as real time monitoring solutions for hazardous environments or equipment that is difficult to take out of service.