In Depth: Examining NDT

Kate Rainford speaks to a range of non-destructive testing companies about the essential role it plays at storage terminals Non-Destructive testing (NDT) plays a critical role in ensuring the safety, reliability, and efficiency of materials, components, and systems within storage terminals, where the safe and efficient handling of high-risk materials is crucial. NDT allows for safer, non-invasive inspection of assets. There are various types of NDT inspection methods, and most companies will work across a range of industries with different materials. NDT methods include radiographic inspection, ultrasonic inspection, magnetic particle inspection, liquid penetrant inspection, as well as advanced NDT techniques such as computed tomography and phased array ultrasonic inspection. The big advantage of NDT in comparison to other techniques, such as visual or ultrasonic testing, is the fact that assets can remain in-use during an inspection. Sonotest’s applications engineer, Sam Hughes, explains: ‘Non-destructive testing can give immediate results on the condition of an asset, often while that asset is still running, this means you can gather data regularly throughout the life of...