FIFTH CANADIAN CONFERENCE ON NONDESTRUCTIVE ... - IAEA

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Another 'near future 1 need is undoubtedly going to be one of technology
transfer. The rapid increase in research is resulting in a rapid fall-out of
innovative Ideas and laboratory demonstration systems. The scientist often
tends to lose interest when the 'physics has been worked out 1 and is then
keen to transfer his innovative skills to the solution of the next
challenging problem. This translation from a laboratory demonstration
'happening' to an engineered, marketable and user-friendly package that can
be taken over (and championed !) by the NDT practitioner is indeed a very
significant problem- Too often laboratory solutions relate to a very
specific problem, and the further development costs to produce an engineered
system are then difficult to justify in terms of potential marketable units.
This situation can sometimes lead to 'prototype systems' perpetuating the
laboratory concepts, and hence requiring a 'PhD driver', getting out into
practical shop-floor application and quickly leading to disillusionment and
engendering loss of credibility - for the technique, the research laboratory
that produced it and ultimately for NDT itself.
Another 'near-future' need relates to the importance of getting the newer NDT
techniques and systems through the barriers of standards, codes of practice,
training and certification syllabi that collectively tend to set the norm of
currently accepted NDT practices. Changes in this area are generally slow
and effected by those often unfamiliar with what is happening at the 'sharp
end' of research.
So much for the near future, what of the longer term future for NDT and of
the 'fresh fields' into which NDT practices might be expected to develop.
Firstly, I detect a significant 'fresh fields' outlook away from simple
defect detection of manufactured products back into the monitoring of the
materials processing techniques and into the closer control of the properties
of the materials themselves from which products are manufactured.
The overall objective in this new approach is to provide better monitoring of
the materials and the materials processing treatments so that the need for
conventional NDT inspection 'at the end of the line' hopefully may become
both less necessary and less critical.
Then there is definitely a 'fresh fields' approach in studying and monitoring
the early stages of crack formation. The objectives here are to develop a
better understanding of the mechanisms of the process of crack development
and to monitor the factors that contribute to failure occurring. Work on
monitoring crack—tip stress and fracture toughness are very much in their
infancy but could soon become a major area of study.
Coming back to the more conventional defect detection role of NDT, there is a
'fresh fields' approach now building up in which maximum use will be made of
all test data so as to obtain more informative detail about the defect being