The 5 Financial Benefits of Purchasing NDT Equipment

Whether to rent, lease or buy NDT equipment is something many business and maintenance managers question. The convenience of a rental agreement can be tempting, with the ease of upgrades as technology advances, included servicing and repairs, plus &#; of course &#; no large initial outlay.

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However, in many cases, an outright purchase of key NDT assets can have a positive impact on an operation&#;s bottom line.

1. Logistics

Owning equipment means that it&#;s always in place and available for use. This removes the related (and often costly) transit costs of getting it to where it needs to be, reducing both the monetary and time aspect. In most industries, the speed that NDT can be achieved directly impacts production and, therefore, profits.

2. Customisation

One of the biggest advantages is that of customisation. This is especially relevant for difficult-to-access assets or those with complex geometry. By customising a product with relevant sensors that are purpose built to suit the common inspections that may be undertaken ensures that your gear is setup optimally for your application whenever needed.

Other examples include additional payloads on crawlers, drones and other inspection vehicles.

3. Inspection Frequency

When equipment is owned it becomes far more cost-effective to flip your maintenance program to a proactive approach. While there are mandatory requirements for asset testing, increasing the regularity allows for more accurate maintenance and repair prediction. In turn, this increases the MTBF (mean time between failures), driving operating costs down. It also dramatically decreases the chances of unexpected breakdowns, repair and serious malfunction incidents &#; again, this has a positive effect on a business&#;s bottom line.

4. Familiarity

The training of staff to use NDT equipment can represent considerable costs. Owning equipment means that, once the initial learning process has been covered, the team is primed to use it whenever needed. Only updates to training will need to be ensured, something that&#;s far less time intensive than constant re-training to use different pieces of equipment.

In turn, becoming familiar with equipment increases user confidence, not to mention honing the ability to capture better and more accurate inspection data.

5. Warranty

Purchasing high-end NDT equipment means that you benefit from a manufacturer&#;s warranty. These are usually measured in multiple years. In addition, a good procurement company will ensure that customers are trained to be fully competent in how to best use the product, help with set-up and the initial uses, as well as offering robust customer service for any post-purchase questions that might arise.

Companies can also take advantage of any local, regional or national tax incentives on offer to further monetise the necessary expense of NDT equipment.

Today&#;s technology has brought incredible advances to the field of maintenance, testing and repairs. With an overarching industrial lean towards leasing or renting NDT assets, the advantages of purchasing can often be overlooked.

At Nexxis, our extensive industry experience means we work with you to define what&#;s best for your business needs. From the above-mentioned Snowcat crawler to vertical inspection cameras and other key pieces of equipment, honing the right procurement model can represent considerable financial benefits.

Contact us to find out more about NDT equipment or any of our other inspection products, or request a quote online.

You might also find this useful: Is Proactive NDT Inspection the Key to Great Asset Management?

Advantages and Disadvantages of Automated NDT Technologies

Non-destructive testing (NDT) plays an important role in many industries that impact daily life. Industries including automotive, aviation, construction, railway, manufacturing, and energy utilize various NDT methods to ensure the safety and quality of equipment and infrastructure. NDT involves the use of various testing methods to examine the irregularities in an object. Sometimes the sheer volume of needed NDT inspections raises questions regarding flexibility, speed and consistent data accuracy&#;mainly due to the chance of human error. Automated NDT technologies can help to address these concerns.

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Automating NDT Technologies: The Advantages and Disadvantages

There are many NDT techniques that can be used to address different types of testing requirements. Some of them include ultrasonic, eddy-current, magnetic, laser, radiographic, visual, infrared, acoustic, vibration, leak, and liquid penetrant testing. Many times, asset owners use a third party or NDT manufacturer&#;s custom engineering services to take specific NDT inspection equipment components and create an automated solution for enhanced performance. The automated process can be used along production lines or for routine servicing of infrastructures like pipelines and railways, for example. Automation helps to gather and analyze the data quickly and with more accuracy and precision, allowing the technician to make an informed decision. 

Automated NDT Advantages

Automation of NDT technologies provides many advantages. Here we discuss the reliability, repeatability, flexibility, and speed benefits of automation. 

Increased Accuracy and Reliability: Given the high stakes involved in NDT, the inspection process and the resulting data must be reliable. When conducting manual testing, NDT technicians often have to spend a large amount of time trying to identify the flaw. Lack of complete attentiveness or fatigue can decrease the chance of the operator identifying the flaw. This prospect can be especially dangerous while inspecting aviation, automotive, or nuclear plant-related components. Reliability can be increased through automation.

Automated NDT technologies can reduce human error and assist in gathering accurate data. They allow for easier inspection of different materials and geometry along the larger area. The automated tool integrated with advanced software can read and analyze data for flaws, thus increasing the reliability of inspection.

Data Repeatability: Automated NDT can provide detailed data with enhanced repeatability and accuracy in flaw detection. In manual testing, there can be a considerable degree of variance in test data mainly due to human limitations. With an automated NDT approach, the system can be calibrated to produce an accurate result on a repeated basis. However, stakes remain on the careful calibration of the equipment.

Improved Flexibility and Speed: An automated NDT system can provide greater flexibility of inspection. It can be easily integrated into the existing production lines and the software can be customized according to the client&#;s needs. Solutions like automated UT scanners can automatically scan simple as well as complex structures at multiple angles and directions in a single line. These scanners can be run across multiple tracks to cover a wide test radius. Without having to adjust for different parts, the inspection can be conducted at a much faster rate as compared to manual testing. 

Automated NDT Disadvantages

Before making a decision on whether or not to consider automated technology, it is important to understand the challenges. Initial investment and manual dependency of the technologies can make its adaptation uneconomic for some applications.  

Investment: Automated NDT technologies have many advantages over manual testing. However, it requires a large initial investment to set up an automated station. In some cases, it may also not be economically practical. For example, inspecting a simple metal weld is much more economical if done manually.

Manual calibration and interpretation: Although automated NDT technologies can free operators and analysts from their active hand on involvement in mundane tasks, it still requires manual support. The automated system requires manual calibration for it to read the accurate data. Without proper calibration, the entire set of data acquired from the inspection will be flawed. 

Choosing Automated NDT Technology

Industries are increasingly adopting automated NDT technologies for their many benefits. With enhanced automatic inspection and flaw detection capability, industries can focus more on improving the quality of their product. The flexibility of the automated NDT process makes it suitable for the mass production line. Accuracy and reliability of the inspection process ensure that the flaw is detected each time. With these benefits, asset owners can make informed and cost-effective decisions. 

Zetec is a leading provider of automated non-destructive testing solutions, specializing in automated ultrasound, eddy current, and mechanical systems solutions. For more information on our cutting-edge instrumentations and software, contact us today.

Zetec&#;s designers are industry-leading experts in ultrasonic and eddy current technologies, and we can help you navigate any of our NDT testing solutions or devices.

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