Non-destructive testing Collaborative Projects
We are involved in a suite of projects worth in total around £30m, more than £8m of which directly funds work at TWI. This programme is constantly growing. For information on how your company may benefit from the work, please contact ndt@twi.co.uk
Find out more about TWI's Collaborative Research programme.
Click here to view our past projects
COMPAIR
Continuous health monitoring and non-destructive assessment of composites and composite repairs on surface transport applications.
Project Budget: £2.8m
End Users: ENEA (Italy), Hexcel Composites (UK)
Project Website: www.compairproject.com
Development of advanced health monitoring of surface transport applications in real time, advanced and prompt non-invasive NDT inspection in manufacturing, assembly and maintenance of composites and composite repairs that find use in vehicles.
HEDRAD
High Energy Digital Radiography.
Project Budget: £1.2m
End Users: E.on (Germany)
Project Website: www.hedrad.com
The project objective is to develop digital computed radiography technology for the volumetric examination of large scale safety critical pressure components (e.g. pump bowls, valve bodies, thick section vessel and pipe welds) for the detection of in-service defects, the presence of which could lead in catastrophic component failure.
INTERAIL
Development of a Novel Integrated Inspection System for the Accurate Evaluation of the Structural Integrity of Rail Tracks.
Project Budget: £4.1m
End Users: Network Rail (UK), STIB (Belgium), REFER (Portugal)
The European rail industry is showing signs of steady recovery after a long period of decline. The technological advances in train design have led to the manufacturing of faster, greener and more comfortable trains making rail transport a more attractive option for passengers in comparison with other means of transportation. The ever growing need for the society to employ more environmentally friendly transportation policies is expected to further underline the economic and societal role of rail transport in achieving sustainable mobility across Europe in the years to follow.
MICCS
Methodology for fast and reliable Investigation and Characterization of Contaminated Sites.
Project Budget: £1.4m
End Users: BioREM (Denmark), Marijampole Municipality (Lithuania)
Project Website: www.miccs.eu
There is an increasing understanding that our natural resources should be kept unspoiled, which makes polluted soil and groundwater not acceptable. Therefore, a lot of resources are used for investigating contaminated sites, limiting the damage from pollution and cleaning polluted soil and groundwater.
NIMO
Development and Demonstration of a Novel Integrated Condition Monitoring System for Wind Turbines.
Project Budget: £4.6m
End Users: TERNA S.A (Greece), ACCIONA ENERGIA S.A (Spain), Novas Energias do Ocidente S.A. (Spain) and A. Silva Matos Energia (Portugal)
Project Website: www.nimoproject.eu
Wind energy is currently the most developed of a number of renewable energy technologies, with several thousands of wind turbines either already operating or being planned for construction across Europe. Wind turbines can be deployed individually to power a single site or installation, but are most commonly grouped together as wind farms to provide power to the electricity grid. The energy output from wind turbines has increased dramatically over the past thirty years from 50 kW to 6 MW, while 8-12 MW turbines are in the design stage.
NOZZLEINSPECT
Autonomous Robot for the Automated Inspection of Nozzle welds in nuclear environments.
Project Budget: £1.2m
End Users: Iberdrola (Spain)
Project Website: www.nozzleinspect.eu
Regular in-service inspection is important to verify the integrity of welded nozzle sections in nuclear and other safety critical facilities. Nozzle sections made from austenitic steel can be susceptible to rapid crack growth due to thermal fatigue and stress corrosion. Early detection of cracks is therefore essential to ensure the continued safe operation of the facility in question.
PICASSO
Improved Reliability Inspection of Aeronautic Structure through Simulation Supported POD.
Project Budget: £4.4m
End Users: EADS (France), MTU Aero Engines GmbH (Denmark), Rolls-Royce plc (UK), SNECMA (France), Technic Control (Poland), Turbomeca (France) and Volvo Aero Aktiebolag (Sweden).
A central challenge in the aeronautical industry in the next years concerns the increase of the efficiency of maintenance which still represents around 20% of an operators indirect operating costs. This challenge is particularly important for metallic parts within the engine and aircraft industry.
QUALITI
Development of New and Novel Quality Control System for the Inspection of Titanium Components in Safety Critical Applications in the Aerospace Industry.
Project Budget: £1.2m
End Users: TIMET (France)
Project Website: www.qualiti.eu
European SMEs in the field of none destructive testing do not have the technological capability to reliably test titanium materials, and as a result risk are losing competitiveness in this 600million global market. Titanium is important material in the manufacture of new components in many important industries, including aerospace.
RAILECT
Rail Joint Inspection.
Project Budget: £1.2m
End Users: Jarvis PLC
Project Website: www.railect.com
In Europe and other continents there are many millions of joints which link together long lengths of rail track. On the occasions that rails breaks do occur, it is the experience of the industry that the majority of breaks occur at joints. There is therefore a strong need to adopt inspection techniques to assure the track owner that no damaging defects are present which might lead to track failure and, at worst, loss of life.
SAFERAIL
Development of Novel Inspection Systems for Railway Wheelsets.
Project Budget: £3.5m
End Users: SNCF (France), De Li jn (Belgium), Feldman (Cyprus), Envirocoustics (Greece), EMEF (Portugal)
Project Website: www.saferail.net
The main objective of the project is to provide the foundation that will enable the development of novel NDT instrumentation for inspection of railway wheelsets. The proposed project is split into two main research parts.
SELFSCAN
Neural Net based defect detection system using Long Range Ultrasonic Testing (LRUT) technology for Aircraft Structure Health Monitoring.
Project Budget: £1.3m
End Users: Airbus (UK), Ultra Electronics (UK)
The aim is to develop lightweight stand-alone, self-supporting actuators which can be permanently mounted on trains and aircraft. These sensors will be used for long term structural health monitoring. Techniques such as LRU focussing and acoustic emission will be employed to provide in-service, continuous monitoring of aircraft and rail structures.
SHIPINSPECTOR
Detection of Safety Critical Cracks and Corrosion in Ships using Novel Sensors and Systems based on Ultrasonic Linear Phased Array Technology.
Project Budget: £2.9m
End Users: Class NK (UK), HSE (UK), American Bureau of Shipping (UK), Lloyds Bureau of Shipping (UK)
Project Website: www.shipinspector.eu
To develop novel ultrasonic linear phased array techniques, sensors and systems for finding defects and corrosion in safety critical areas of ships and tankers without taking the vessel out of the water. The Ship-Inspector technology will help operators, classification societies and regulatory agencies worldwide to manage risk more effectively.
SUBCTEST
Development of novel inspection NDT techniques and robots to be deployed by remote operating vehicles (ROVs) for the subsea inspection of offshore structures.
Project Budget: £1.2m
End Users: HSE (UK), PSA (Norway)
Project Website: www.subctest.com
The project objective is to develop subsea NDT techniques to be applied by novel robots developed to be deployed to subsea structures by a Remote Operating Vehicle (ROV) for the examination of critical welds and lengths of subsea pipelines.
TESTPEP
Development and validation of an automated NDE approach for testing electrofusion joints in polyethylene pipes.
Project Budget: £3.2m
End Users: British Energy (UK), Gaz de France (France)
Polyethylene (PE) pipe offers significant advantages over other materials, such as cast iron, steel and concrete, for the distribution of fluids such as natural gas, water and corrosive liquids
TIDALSENSE
Development of condition monitoring system for marine current turbine structures.
Project Budget: £1.2m
End Users: Enerocean (Spain)
Due to the increasing demand for renewable energy, a great deal of effort is being put into the development of marine power generation systems. As these systems go in to commercial production and service, it is important to develop continuous condition monitoring techniques and systems.
WINTUR
In-situ wireless monitoring of on- and offshore wind towers and blades using energy harvesting technology.
Project Budget: £1.1m
End Users: Southern & Scottish Energy (UK), Ultra Electronics (UK)
Project Website: www.wintur-project.com
The project addresses the need to develop advanced measurement and testing methods to improve the standards in design, safety and performance of wind energy systems. In this project, we propose to monitor blades, towers (including support structures), gears, motors and shafts for offshore wind generators.
AWARE
NDT inspection of inaccessible electrical wiring in ageing aircraft.
Project Budget: £1.3m
End Users: BA, Airbus, BCF Designs, Marshall Aerospace
Project Website: www.aware.uk.com
Degradation and failure of aircraft wiring insulation results in potentially flight safety critical system failure or in smoke and fire due to arcing.
DISSIMILAR
Phased array ultrasonic inspection of dissimilar metal joints.
Project Budget: £1.3m
End Users: British Energy, Shell, HSE
Project Website: www.dissimilarweld.co.uk
The Dissimilar Metal Joints (DMJs) project has two primary aims. Position and size defects accurately, compensating for the distortive effects of the anisotropic, inhomogeneous austenitic/ferritic weld. Improve the overall inspection quality through the use of phased array technology such that the inspections provide vastly better signal to noise quality (compared to present probes), are faster (by orders of magnitude) and provide accurate, quantifiable and digitally recordable data.
INSIGHT
In-situ wireless monitoring of offshore wind towers and blades.
Project Budget: £1.8m
End Users: Ericsson, RWEnPower, TUV NEL, FUGRO
Project Website: www.insightproject.co.uk
The project addresses the need to monitor blades and towers for offshore wind turbines. The composite blades can suffer fatigue failure and towers are susceptible to corrosion and fatigue. Blades and structures require regular inspection to avoid catastrophic failure risk.
LRUT FOOD
Advanced Long Range Ultrasonic Technology (LRUT) for Integrity Assessment.
Project Budget: £1.3m
End Users: Cadbury Schweppes, H J Heinz, Coors Brewery
Project Website: www.lrutfood.co.uk
The objective is to develop a low-cost, accurate, robust inspection system using guided ultrasonic imaging to detect corrosion in welds, attrition, fouling build-up and cracks found in food and drinks pipelines, as well as water pipes and heat exchanger tubes, thus enabling repair work at an early stage.
SHeMS
A lightweight structural health monitoring system.
Project Budget: £1.4m
End Users: Airbus UK, Boeing, MoD, Marshall Aerospace
The objective is to develop a stand-alone, self-supporting, inspection system using Acoustic Emission (AE) and guided wave techniques The system will tailored to provide in-service, continuous full coverage monitoring of aircraft components, e.g., flaps, rotor blades, tail fins, and other critical structural components.
TIM
Development of in-situ, non-invasive monitoring of the integrity of above ground storage tanks using novel Long Range Ultrasonic Testing (LRUT) techniques.
Project Budget: 800k
End Users: Vopak, Nu Star Terminals, Shell UK
The objective of TIM is to develop an enhanced in-situ, non-invasive Non-Destructive Testing (NDT) method for assessing the integrity of hydrocarbon and chemical storage tank floors without tank entry. This will require considerable sensor and technique development work.
Past projects
Here are some projects that TWI has been involved with the past:
RIMINI
Development of a robotic inspection system for reactor nozzle inspection.
- Developments in Ultrasonic Phased array inspection, incorporating 2D TRL phased array probes, Flexible array eddy-current and ACFM.
- Development of a 128 parallel channel phased array instrument manufactured by Peak NDT.
- ACFM instrument by TSC.
- 2D TRL phased array probe manufactured by Vermon.
- Total budget
2m
Robair
Development of a robotic system for the inspection of aircraft wings and fuselage.
- Multi-tasking robot platform that crawls over surfaces, including vertically and overhead
- Acoustic camera, eddy current and phased array detection
- Prototype has been demonstrated
- Total budget £1.39m
Qualistir
Development of novel non-destructive testing techniques and integrated in-line process monitoring for robotic and flexible friction stir welding systems.
- NDT techniques specifically for defects anticipated in FSW, e.g. entrapped oxide
- Phased array ultrasonic testing
- Algorithm developed for treating noise ratio from different parts of the joint
- Method of combining weld control and NDT information to yield a fully integrated quality control system
- Total budget £1.41m
Rail-Inspect
Train-mounted sensors and systems for the inspection of rails.
- Automated NDT to cover whole of rail head and web
- Scanning with test vehicle travelling at 80km/h
- Ultrasonic, eddy current and magnetic flux leakage being evaluated
- Total budget £1.13m
MMFSC
Manufacturing and modelling of fabricated structural components.
- Aero engine components
- Ultrasonic and eddy current methods
- TIG and laser welded parts
- Total budget £6.6m
Magcast
Production line integrated sensor system for porosity quality control of magnesium castings.
- Digital X-ray
- Establishment of limits of detection for real-time operation
- Manipulator to mechanise the system
- Total budget £1.25m
Robot Inspector
Development of a robotic system for the inspection of large steel and aluminium plates in industrial plants.
- Crawler for tank floors
- Use of ACFM, EMATs and phased array
- Obstacle avoidance
- Total budget £1.4m
Piezodiagnostics
Smart structural diagnostics using piezo-generated elastic waves.
- Use of piezo-actuators for long-range ultrasonic monitoring
- Supervision via PC and a network
- Wave propagation over suitable distances has been demonstrated
- Total budget £2.04m
TOFD proof
Effective application of TOFD method for weld inspection at the manufacturing stage of pressure vessels.
- Round-robin exercise
- Comparison with other NDT techniques
- Aiming to propose European Standard
- Total budget £1.22m
Nanoscan
Development of new and novel inspection systems for composite aircraft non-destructive testing.
- Air-coupled ultrasonics, laser shearography, digital radiography, phased array, thermography, resonance
- Testing for composite specific defects such as delamination, bondline integrity, etc.
- Development of a suite of sensors to cope with a range of aerospace applications
- Total budget £1.41m
Cris
Corrosion reliability inspection scheduling.
- Risk-based inspection approach
- Determination of the probability of detection
- Assessment of techniques
- Total budget £0.36m
Long-range guided waves
The development of the next generation long-range guided wave testing systems.
- Testing of rail
- Modelling
- Wave propagation in irregular cross section material
- Total budget £0.38m
FSW kissing bond detection
Development of non-destructive techniques for the detection of flaws in friction stir welds.
- Ultrasonics, eddy current, magnetometer and digital X-ray
- Aluminium alloys
- Quantitative evaluation of reliability
- Total budget £0.24m
Digital X-ray
Development of computed radiography procedures to replace film-based radiography for defect detection in welds and castings.
- Computed radiography from phosphor screens
- Evaluation against film systems
- Economic and safety benefit definition
- Total budget £0.24m
Microscan
Development of comprehensive in-line control system for printed circuit board assemblies.
- Range of complementary techniques combined to a comprehensive NDT system
- Application to lead-free and conventional soldering
- Integrated in-line quality system
- Total budget £1.39m
FPSO-Inspect
Non-intrusive in-service inspection robotic system for condition monitoring of welds inside floating production storage and offloading (FPSO) vessels.
- Autonomous underwater vehicle
- Combination of array techniques
- Checking for corrosion, weld defects and fatigue simultaneously
- Total budget £1.4m
ReNEWit
Development of new and novel automated inspection technology for GRP wind turbine blades.
- Techniques for total inspection requirements
- Detection of disbonds, impact damage and lightning strike damage
- Reduced downtime from rapid automated process
- Total budget £1.4m
Tank-Inspect
Condition monitoring of large oil and chemical storage tanks using ultrasonic guided wave tomography without the need to empty and clean tanks.
- Ultrasonic guided waves
- Inspection of tank floor up to 100m diameter
- Checking corrosion and defects with tanks still filled
- Total budget £1.4m
Pipescan
Development of inspection systems for the inspection of metal pipelines buried underground, in concrete, in water or covered with coatings.
- Screening for up to 100m of pipeline from a single point
- Use of guided ultrasonic waves for qualitative assessment
- Development of defect sizing techniques with other NDT techniques
- Total budget £1.4m
Polytec Systems
Development and validation of non-destructive testing techniques for electrofusion joints in polyethylene pipes.
- Ultrasonic phased array and thermography
- Determine limits of detection
- Produce prototype NDT equipment
- Total budget £1.27m
Girth Welds
Inspection of single-sided girth welds.
- Fatigue performance of riser pipes
- Automated ultrasonic inspection reliability
- Establish a library of standard specimens
- Total budget £0.16m
Safe Ray
Development of digital radiographic techniques, sensors and systems.
- Safer, faster, more economical
- In-situ operation
- Reduced operator exposure
- Total budget £1.55m
Sure2Grip
Quality Assurance and structural evaluation of GRP pipes.
- NDT techniques developed specifically for GRP
- Detection of characteristic defects (e.g. kissing bonds)
- Automation reducing operator subjectivity
- Total budget
2m.
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