A Constructive Market for Non-Destructive Testing

Today modern nondestructive tests are used in manufacturing, fabrication and in-service inspections to ensure product integrity and reliability, to control manufacturing processes, lower production costs and to maintain a uniform quality level. During construction, NDT is used to ensure the quality of materials and joining processes during the fabrication and erection phases, and in-service NDT inspections are used to ensure that the products in use continue to have the integrity necessary to ensure their usefulness and the safety of the public. The NDT industry faces a range of challenges today, from labor shortages to changing technology to issues with ethics. Quality spoke with a host of NDT experts to discuss how the field has changed in recent years, trends, and challenges related to working with NDT technology. A common theme emerged: new equipment continues to enter the NDT industry but finding personnel is still a struggle.

With the increase in automation in the industrial manufacturing and infrastructure sectors, there has been a substantial hike in the demand for flaw detection related to cracks, porosity, manufacturing disorders, and so on. Therefore, adherence to industrial safety norms is a significant factor behind the growth of the NDT market. The NDT market is competitive in nature. With the increasing regulations, which makes it mandatory for different organizations to undergo a life assessment procedure as a safety measure coupled with the regular inspection required to check for any damage in the equipment and to take necessary is creating a market for NDT. Thus, the companies are entering this market seeing a huge opportunity. This edition features some of the key players from India.