Testing Services Offered by NCNDT

ULTRASONIC TESTING

In the area of Ultrasonic Testing (UT), NCNDT is capable of carrying out:

  1. Testing for manufacturing and in-service defects according to various international codes and standards.
  2. In-service inspection of components/piping welds in Power Plants, Refineries, Fertilizers, Gas processing plants, etc.
  3. Thickness measurements of components.
  4. Documentation of results with microprocessor based equipment.
The manpower of Ultrasonic Group consists of personnel certified up to Level-3 in UT. The equipments includes laboratory type analogue flaw detectors for training purposes, digital flaw detectors for field inspection, C-scan equipment for the mechanized inspection of small size and simple geometry specimen and digital thickness meters. Laboratory is also equipped with advanced Time of Flight Diffraction (TOFD) equipment (OMNI SCAN) and motorized pipe scanners.

UT of pump casing at a gas processing plant

RADIOGRAPHIC TESTING

In the area of Radiographic Testing, NCNDT is capable of carrying out the following jobs:

  1. Testing for manufacturing and in-service defects according to various international codes and standards.
  2. Development of procedures for radiographic testing of different jobs according to international codes and standards.
  3. Testing of welds in pressure vessels, pipes, heat exchangers, etc.
  4. Testing of cast components for minute cracks.
The radiographic testing group consists of experienced manpower certified upto Level-3 in RT. The available equipment includes portable X-ray machines upto 300KV, fluoroscopic testing unit of 225KV, Ir-192 and Co-60 sources and accessories.

RT of pipeline at a hydel power plant

EDDY CURRENT TESTING

In Eddy Current Testing, NCNDT is capable of execution of the following jobs:

  1. Inspection of non-ferrous (aluminium, stainless steel, brass, copper, titanium, zircalloy, etc.) tubes to detect and identify defects, viz., internal, external, pits, through wall holes, denting, corrosion deposits, cracks, etc.
  2. Material sorting and conductivity measurements.
  3. Inspection of components such as turbine blades, bolt holes, housings, etc. for surface and sub-surface cracks.
  4. Detection of surface-open cracks in metals with paint or coating with insulated materials.
  5. Pre-service and in-service inspections for heat exchangers, condensers, chillers, heaters, steam generator tubings of non-ferrous and ferro-magnetic materials.
  6. Coatings, cladding and plating thickness measurement of conductive and non-conductive materials on conductive and non-conductive base materials.
Data acquisitions of urea stripper tubes by eddy current testing at a fertilizer plant
Eddy current testing group has highly skilled and experienced manpower of up to Level-3 personnel. NCNDT has state-of-the-art equipments for Eddy Current Testing. The equipment includes MAD8D, ect48LB, Phasec2D, Phasec3D, one MS5800 with ET, RFT, MFL, IRIS capabilities. All these equipments have multi frequency capabilities for robust inspection conditions, data acquisition, storage and analysis features. Elcometer, Halec crack detector, Defecto-scope and numerous probes of various sizes and shapes for multipurpose uses are also available.

ET of LP Heater at a power plant

SURFACE METHODS

The Surface Methods includes penetrant testing (PT), magnetic particle testing (MT) and visual testing (VT) techniques. NCNDT is capable of carrying out the following jobs:

  1. Inspection of pressure vessels, heat exchangers, pipelines, storage tanks, chemical reactors, etc., for checking the integrity of the welds in accordance with the international codes and standards.
  2. To detect fatigue and creep cracks during the overhauling of chemical plants, power plants, oil refineries, and automotive industries.
  3. In-service inspection of welds in parts of vessel, pipings, etc. in Power Plants, Refineries, Fertilizers, Gas processing plants, etc
MT at a gas processing plant.
The equipment available includes videoscope, borescope with accessories, portable magnetizing units capable of producing AC & HWDC current of up to 1500 amperes, AC yokes, DC yokes, permanent yokes, ultraviolet lights, field strength meters, UV light intensity meters, residual field strength meters, comparator blocks, different types of weld inspection gauges. Whole range of water washable, post emulsifiable and solvent removable penetrant materials in both visible and fluorescent types are also available.

METALLURGY & LEAK TESTING

In the area of Metallurgy and Leak Testing, NCNDT is capable of carrying out the following testing services:

  1. Hydrostatic testing to check the strength and leakage in welds and other joints of vessels, heat exchangers, components, etc.
  2. Calibration of pressure gauges with dead weight tester with test range from 2 psi to 8000 psi.
  3. Helium leak testing.
  4. Pneumatic pressure testing to check the leakage in welds and other joints of vessels, heat exchangers, etc., where hydrostatic testing is restricted by the applicable code.
  5. Identification and analysis of alloys by portable XRF alloy analyzer of more than 400 different alloys without damaging the surface of the samples.
  6. In-situ non-destructive metallographic examination of in-service components of power plants, refineries, fertilizers plants, etc.
In-situ hardness testing of pipe at a Gas Well
The available equipment includes motor driven Hydraulic test pumps (maximum test pressure 6000psi), universal testing machine (capacity 50 tons), impact testing machine (capacity 165J & 300J), portable digital hardness tester, Rockwell hardness tester, Helium leak detectors (detection up to 10-9std cc/sec.), Air compressors, (maximum test pressure 1000psi), portable NDT XRF alloy analyzer, in-situ metallography equipment with all the necessary accessories, metallurgical microscope (Magnification 3000X) along with cutting/ polishing units and pipeline current mapper (PCM).

In-situ hardness testing of pipe at a Gas Well

DESTRUCTIVE TESTING

NCNDT is also capable of carrying out following Destructive Testing (DT) jobs: Tensile test, Compression test, Shear test, Bend test, Flattening test, Impact test (Charpy & Izod test) and Hardness test for the qualification of materials, welding procedures and welders, etc., according to the international codes and standards.

ACOUSTIC EMISSION AND FAILURE ANALYSIS (AEFA)

Acoustic Emission non-destructive testing has the capability of monitoring of crack initiation and defect growth in high stress regions of components in real-time and without any shutdown. Failure analysis of a structure based on Fracture Mechanics methodology is a requirement of in-service inspection codes starting with the detecting of crack initiation, goes along the crack propagation and continues till final analysis of component failure. The activities of AEFA are summarized below:

  1. Determination of root cause of failures in plants during operation.
  2. Life assessment of cracked components by Fracture Mechanics.
  3. Assessment of sulphide-stress-cracking in sour environments.
  4. On-line crack growth monitoring of pressurized systems by multi-channel SPARTAN Acoustic Emission system.