Where Is Non-Destructive Testing Used?

Depending on how broadly you define NDT you could say that it’s used in almost every industry in the world, since visual inspections (whether formalized or casual) take place in almost every workplace in some form or other.

That being said, there are specific industries that require NDT and have formalized processes for its use, as codified by those organizations we listed above like API and ASME.

These industries include:

• Oil & Gas
• Power Generation
• Chemicals
• Mining
• Aerospace
• Automotive
• Maritime
• Mining

How Drones Can Help with NDT

In the last several years drones equipped with cameras have become another tool commonly used in NDT for collecting visual data. Due to limitations in the technology, for some time drones could only provide supplementary visual data for inspectors, but could not take the place of inspectors physically collecting visual data themselves. However, as drone technology has improved, inspectors have been able to use drones more and more as RVI tools, in some instances completely replacing the need for them to collect visual data manually.

 Here are four ways drones are helping with NDT these days:

1. SAFETY

By removing the need for inspectors to enter dangerous spaces in order to collect visual data drones are helping improve safety in the workplace.

For outdoor inspections of assets like power lines or towers, using a drone to collect visual data reduces the amount of time a person needs to physically be in the air on the tower or line.

For indoor inspections of assets like pressure vessels or boilers, using a drone like the Elios 2 to collect visual data means the inspector does not have to enter a confined space to do so, again helping significantly reduce the exposure to risk.

2. SAVINGS

Drones can help companies improve their ROI in both indoor and outdoor scenarios, but savings are especially significant for indoor inspections.

Using a professional indoor drone instead of sending an inspector in to collect visual data manually means that companies save on not having to build and take down scaffolding, and can reduce downtimes associated with those requirements, in some cases by as much as one to two days.

3. BETTER DATA

Because modern drone technology provides a visual record of an inspection in the form of a video, inspectors can save the outputs from a flight and refer to it later to monitor changes to assets over time. 

New software created to process drone data can help provide accurate measurements within this visual data, leading to the capture of better data and a more thorough historic record of the life of an asset, which can be referred to at any time.

4. INCREASED FREQUENCY OF INSPECTIONS

Because drones are a relatively inexpensive solution for Visual Non-Destructive Testing, companies can use them to increase the number of inspections performed over time while still realizing significant savings.

Increasing inspections can help increase the longevity of a company’s assets by revealing defects earlier in the maintenance cycle, and fixing them before they grow worse. 

Increasing inspections by using drones can also help companies be more environmentally friendly. A recent study conducted by Boiler Room Consulting found that using drones to inspect boilers could help reduce CO2 emissions by as much as 649 metric tons a year.

[Related reading: Can a Drone Be Used as a Formal Inspection Tool?]

WHAT’S NEXT FOR DRONES IN NDT?

To date, the primary use case for drones in NDT has been for the collection of visual data.

But in the last few years, thermal sensors attached to drones have allowed inspectors to collect thermal data by drone, and as time passes it’s likely that we’ll see new sensors developed for drones to support even more NDT techniques.