Electromagnetic tensor imaging for in-process welding inspection

Welding is one of the most commonly practiced fabrication techniques within manufacturing today. In particular, the manufacture of heavy 5 vessels such as in the nuclear industry from ferritic and austenitic steels is dependent on high quality welding of seams and joints to ensure component integrity and safety.

The development of in-process welding Non-Destructive Testing and Evaluation (NDT/E) technologies is vital to underpin the safety of such components, but also provide a significant improvement in nuclear manufacturing productivity. Currently, in order to minimise the need for rework of the welded seams and joints, costly, time-consuming, and potentially hazardous mid-manufacture radiography in a dedicated NDT/E bay is used for NDT/E. Mid-manufacture inspection suffers from the need to allow the welded components to cool down, typically up to 4 hours, before transferring to a dedicated NDT/E bay.
In-process weld inspection would be able to provide real time indication of defects or abnormalities with the weld permitting immediate further investigation and if necessary corrective actions to be taken. This would have positive impact on facility operation efficiency, avoid costly remedy actions at a later stage, and consequently deliver a reduction in overall testing & rework costs and increased productivity. Currently, there are no such commercial techniques available.
The instrument proposed in this project if successful would make a step change in this area andwould have significant impact on the UK manufacturers' productivity for heavy nuclear vessels and their competiveness in the global market.

The main impact will be in the area of nuclear manufacturing capabilities and other welding related manufacturing processes.
The UK has a strong track record in nuclear engineering. With a new generation of nuclear power stations in the UK and worldwide, there are significant opportunities for UK companies to take advantage of this new market. A new nuclear power plant requires a wide range of equipment and components. Many of the manufacturing processes involve welding.
In the broadest sense, the industrial benefits will stem from an ability to provide reliable and more efficient manufacturing processes and components requiring welding techniques, which enhance the competitive edge of UK manufacturers across the world wide nuclear industry. On line in process welding monitoring technology would help UK suppliers reduce cost, improve quality, reduce lead time and cycle time, and reduce risk in manufacturing.
Component reliability and the ability to minimise the need for rework of the welded seams and joints in high value components is also of environmental and societal benefit in terms of contributing to increased efficiency in nuclear manufacturing (lower fuel consumption) and reductions in CO2 emissions.
The instrument developed would be capable of supporting research work into developing novel welding processes and materials. Demonstrations through nuclear manufacturing research centres such as the NAMRC and the Manchester Dalton Research Institute - Manufacturing Technology Research Laboratory will be arranged. There is further opportunity to develop the instruments into standard machines for NDT communities, which can be used in aerospace, automotive, power, civil and railway industries.
Although this project focuses on nuclear welding processes, the instrument and technology developed would be readily transferred to other welding processes such as those in the automotive and aerospace manufacturing industries, where reliability and efficiency is crucial for global competitiveness and success.
This research is also highly inter-disciplinary, and involves a variety of scientific and technical areas such as: metallurgy, electromagnetic engineering, modelling and simulation, electronics, digital signal processing, inverse algorithms, process and mechanical engineering and non-destructive testing (NDT). Results from the project will be beneficial to a cross-section of scientific workers in these areas.