Bleed-air ducts, braking components, climate-control and anti-icing systems used in aircraft can have complex shapes and many welds. The welds are subjected to very high mechanical and thermal stress loads, which is why the quality of these connections is critical.
Industrial digital X-ray inspection enables the detection of welding defects such as cracks or pores with exceptional process assurance and has been successfully deployed for quality control for years. The use of modern digital flat-panel detectors as found in YXLON industrial X-ray (DR) systems increases inspection certainty with regard to defect recognition even further.
A leading aircraft manufacturer empirically proved that defects in circumferential welds are detected with greater probability using a digital flat-panel detector and YXLON software than with conventional film technology. This occurs even without post-edit enhancement of the digital image.
Additional improvements can be obtained by adding the YXLON image processing software, YXLON Y.HDR-Inspect. This technology ensures high detail visibility and inspection reliability with advantages that include:
- Shorter inspection times
- Easier, space-saving archiving
- No need for expensive disposal of pollutant chemicals