Welsh centre to research materials

A TWI (The Welding Institute) product story

Edited by the Engineeringtalk editorial team Feb 17, 2006

National research centre in Port Talbot, Wales, set to play critical role in ensuring the future safety of materials and components used in almost all engineering areas from aeroplanes to pace makers.

A national research centre in Port Talbot, Wales, is set to play a critical role in ensuring the future safety of materials and components used in virtually all areas of engineering - from aeroplanes to pace makers.

The Non-Destructive Testing (NDT) Validation Centre was officially opened on 6th February 2006 by Alun Michael, Minister of State for Industry and the Regions, and Andrew Davies, Welsh Assembly Government Minister for Economic Development and Transport.

The centre, which is managed by the Welding Institute (WI) and run with Swansea Institute of Higher Education and Swansea University, is an independent organisation with the objective of assessing the accuracy and consistency of NDT methods used in manufacturing and construction industries.

It aims to address the need to verify and improve the accuracy of inspection techniques and flaw detection to increase the confidence of manufacturers, regulators and users alike.

An industrial and academic survey commissioned by the DTI and WDA also confirmed the need for a validation centre that would offer independent research to improve the understanding and performance of NDT techniques.

This need is reinforced by industry placing increasing demands on NDT and developments in robotics, data handling and signal processing.

Housing a wide variety of equipment, it is well placed to provide expertise in advanced inspection techniques such as digital radiography, laser shearography, eddy current array inspection, time of flight diffraction, phased array ultrasonics, immersion ultrasonics, thermography, tomography and long range guided wave ultrasonics.

The inspection techniques available at the centre permit the inspection of all engineering materials including metals, composites, plastics and ceramics.

The methods are acceptable for inspecting products made using various manufacturing and fabrication processes.

Davies said the decision to site this UK resource in Wales reflected the high level of academic expertise within the field of materials technology and would complement existing RandD carried out by the WI.

"We cannot compete with emerging industrial nations on the basis of cost alone - we must augment and strengthen the RandD base of our economy, support innovation and stimulate industry-academic links - all prevailing features of this new centre," he said.

"It will bring tremendous benefits for industries and create a centre of world class expertise in Wales in a critical technology".

This will be supported by Swansea Institute, which has become the first higher education institution in the UK to establish an MSc in nondestructive testing and evaluation".

The centre is an integral part of the National Composites Network - a DTI Knowledge Transfer Network, also managed by the WI, which facilitates knowledge sharing, networking and technology transfer.

Inspection of composite materials requires significant research, but successful development and validation of appropriate techniques will have benefits for industries keen to make use of composites in everyday production.