Latest News

Element Materials Technology has announced the signing of an outsourcing agreement with Firth Rixson, a global leading aerospace industry supplier of highly-engineered forged and speciality metal products.

Aberdeen-based Inspectahire has helped to protect a unique piece of Scottish heritage at one of the country’s most iconic battlefields.

The Technology Strategy Board is to invest up to £10 million in new research and development projects that stimulate innovation across the key enabling technology areas of advanced materials, biosciences, electronics, sensors and photonics, and information and communications technology.

QinetiQ is supporting the Ministry of Defence (MOD) in testing new composite materials for the UK submarine fleet using its recently re-commissioned and refitted Hyperbaric Trials Unit (HTU).

The British Institute of NDT (BINDT) is pleased to report that John Moody has joined its team in the role of Technical Support Engineer. John is very well qualified and has extensive relevant experience. He is also very widely known in the industry and, therefore, he needs little introduction. The role, however, is new and readers might be interested to know more about it.

Ashtead Technology has experienced a surge in demand for hired video borescopes from the aircraft sector and Branch Manager Alan Hasson believes this is happening for three reasons: “There is a growing demand for borescopes because they enable inspection without the cost and delay of dismantling engines. Secondly, instrumentation technology has advanced considerably recently and we are now able to supply video borescopes that are very light and easy to use, but which provide extremely high-quality images. Thirdly, we stock a wide range of the latest inspection equipment from leading manufacturers such as Olympus IMS and GE, so that clients can rent the most appropriate equipment for each job.”

ATH (NDT) Consultants made huge developments throughout a busy 2012 and these have seen the demand and growth of the business rocket, leading to the company recruiting two more full-time NDT employees to cope with its on-going and increasing workload.

Technology Design has extended its existing product licence system by adding an online facility that allows remote licence activation across the internet by clicking a single button in the TD-Scan software.

An automatic vision inspection system to read the alphanumeric product identifiers cast into pistons has been developed by Olmec-UK Ltd for an automotive engine manufacturer. The pistons must be checked immediately prior to engine testing to ensure that the correct ones are used. Starting an engine with incorrect pistons fitted results in catastrophic failure, with the entire engine having to be scrapped.

Thermal imaging is now an industry standard method for condition monitoring and preventive maintenance. Its efficiency and application flexibility has driven its take-up across all industrial sectors and, as a result, camera costs have fallen thanks to manufacturing economies. The technology is now eminently affordable and accessible to an expanding engineering community and the need for dedicated training has become an increasingly important and natural by-product.