Re: NDT in the Digital Age

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Re: NDT in the Digital Age
Posted by: Wolfgang Bisle , E-mail: woilfgang.bisle@airbus.dasa.de, on January 15, 2001 at 11:10 :
In Reply to: NDT in the Digital Age posted by : Matt Golis on December 18, 2000 at 21:51:
Reading some of the comments I have the feeling of most thinking quiet "old fashioned". Sure, if I compare techniques which have had a good quality already in analog times like X-Ray, Ultrasonix you are missing today sometimes a lot of old but very usefull stuff. Digital operation often means huge and confusing menues, pixel screens with quiet low resolution....
But we got a lot of new imaging techniques. For instance the colour C-scan, which helps us to speed up interpretations, improving the readability of documents etc.
But even more if we look to optical inspection techniques. You couldn't do shearography without digital image processing. Thermography - thermal wave imaging is a major break through for thermography in for instance aerospace NDT - because of digital image processing. LaserUltrasonics - forget it with analog electronics. You need computers to control the instrument and to combine the data for a readable document.
Of coarse: still a major portion of InService NDT in aircraft maintenance is done in the "analog" way: maybe the instruments circuit board has changed to digital, but the method is still the same as in former analog times.
Still we have not implemented the full scale of possibilities of the digital future. But we are making progress: We are currently starting a project we call 4M: MultiMediaMaintenanceManual.
This is the Internet-based manual, communication between electronic inspection manual and inspection equipment, databases, etc.; this is data fusion, automated lifecycle monitoring etc.; all shall give us more informations about the quality and behaviour of the tested structure, shall reduce the human error, shall help to improve the safety of inspected parts.
Nothing without the digital world.
So what for to discuss old times. Maybe we must identify some of the remaining draw backs of the digital age, must look for more good combination of analog and digital circuits. Not everything must be digital. Analog computers have been sometimes much faster than their digital counterparts and even easier to maintain. My opinion in this case is: It's a pitty that there are only a few people left in the design offices, which understand analog electronic good enough to recognize the potential. This is the most severe draw back of the digital age.

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: Reading some of the comments I have the feeling of most thinking quiet "old fashioned". Sure, if I compare techniques which have had a good quality already in analog times like X-Ray, Ultrasonix you are missing today sometimes a lot of old but very usefull stuff. Digital operation often means huge and confusing menues, pixel screens with quiet low resolution.... : But we got a lot of new imaging techniques. For instance the colour C-scan, which helps us to speed up interpretations, improving the readability of documents etc. : But even more if we look to optical inspection techniques. You couldn't do shearography without digital image processing. Thermography - thermal wave imaging is a major break through for thermography in for instance aerospace NDT - because of digital image processing. LaserUltrasonics - forget it with analog electronics. You need computers to control the instrument and to combine the data for a readable document. : Of coarse: still a major portion of InService NDT in aircraft maintenance is done in the "analog" way: maybe the instruments circuit board has changed to digital, but the method is still the same as in former analog times. : Still we have not implemented the full scale of possibilities of the digital future. But we are making progress: We are currently starting a project we call 4M: MultiMediaMaintenanceManual. : This is the Internet-based manual, communication between electronic inspection manual and inspection equipment, databases, etc.; this is data fusion, automated lifecycle monitoring etc.; all shall give us more informations about the quality and behaviour of the tested structure, shall reduce the human error, shall help to improve the safety of inspected parts. : Nothing without the digital world. : So what for to discuss old times. Maybe we must identify some of the remaining draw backs of the digital age, must look for more good combination of analog and digital circuits. Not everything must be digital. Analog computers have been sometimes much faster than their digital counterparts and even easier to maintain. My opinion in this case is: It's a pitty that there are only a few people left in the design offices, which understand analog electronic good enough to recognize the potential. This is the most severe draw back of the digital age.

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