ECNDT 2006 - Poster 49

Advances in Digital Radiography for

Abstract. This presentation will describe the work that has been carried out to date
on the EU Framework 6 Integrated Project, FilmFree. Within the scope of this
project, a number of new and innovative technological advances in industrial digital
radiographic non-destructive testing will be researched and developed mainly for the
aerospace, rail and oil & gas industries, but also for power generation and
shipbuilding industries. The project will effectively promote the replacement of
radiographic film with various radiographic digital media that will enable safe, fast
and accurate on-site and production-line non-destructive inspections with automated
defect recognition.

Introduction

The objectives of the EU Framework 6 Integrated Project, FilmFree, are to make a number
of new and innovative technological advances that will take the industrial digital
radiography sector into a new era to effectively replace film as the detecting media with
digital technology. The project will be the industrial equivalent of the replacement of film
based camera photography with digital cameras. This will reduce the cost, waste and man-
hours associated with traditional film radiography, and increase the accessibility and
accuracy of radiographic non-destructive testing.

FilmFree is a four-year project, and in September 2006, it will have completed its first year.
The development and trials to date of the innovative digital radiographic techniques,
compared to traditional film radiography, will be presented.

Provision of Defect Samples

The first phase of the project involves the design and production of numerous industry
representative test specimens to be later used for digital radiographic technique
development. The samples are made from various materials and contain a variety of
defects, both real and artificial, mainly from the aerospace, rail, and petrochemical, oil &
gas industries, but also including the power generation and shipbuilding industries.
Traditional film radiographs of the samples will be compared to various digital radiographs
taken through different methods to ensure that the images are at least the same quality in
terms of defect detectability, contrast and sensitivity.

Over two hundred samples have been provided for the project representing a wide range of
materials and defect types, including: corroded and eroded pipes, welded pipes, plates and
components both manual and automatic, and rail section samples. There is also a wide
range of castings including light alloy castings in aluminium, titanium and magnesium,
turbine blades, and complex steel castings.

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Development of Prototype Digital X-Ray Hardware

The second phase of the project involves the research, development and production of
various new radiographic hardware systems. Several x-ray generation systems are
currently being produced for the project which include: a 450kV microfocus x-ray
generator, a 250kV Panoramic millifocus x-ray generator, and an x-ray backscatter
radiography system. The various types of digital media include: direct detector arrays,
phosphor-imaging plates, computed radiography systems and x-ray backscatter detectors;
this digital media will also be adapted for use with x-ray gamma sources. Highly accurate
manipulators are also being produced to hold and position the samples between the x-ray
source and detector.

The individual radiographic components described above will be integrated together to

Development of Theoretical Models for New Radiographic Techniques

The third phase of the project involves the research and development of individual
theoretical models for current and new x-ray sources, samples and defects, and the various
detection media, as well as combined models for complete radiographic techniques. Such
models will be used to establish the optimum radiation exposure conditions and detector
variables that will provide the highest level of resolution and defect detection sensitivity for
each industry sector. They will also be used to simulate radiographic images of the various
samples, enabling for efficient radiographic technique trials and optimisation. The
theoretical models will initially be optimised through testing, trials and validation of the
radiographic hardware described previously.

Development of New Radiographic Techniques

The fourth phase of the project involves the development and production of new and novel
digital radiographic techniques, such as x-ray backscatter, double wall pipe radiography and
the use of digital detectors, which will promote the replacement of radiographic film by
radiographic digital media. For example, on-site pressure pipe weld examination could be
carried out using computed radiography and x-ray gamma isotopes as opposed to traditional
film. These techniques will potentially reduce exposure times, have increased penetration
of materials, and will automatically identify areas of defects within the material. These
techniques will improve on current methods and will be established and validated using the
samples provided for the project. These techniques will also be directly compared to film
radiography through trials and modelling.

Future Work

Further phases of the FilmFree project that will not have started by September 2006, and
the future direction of work, will be briefly summarised. This will include the research and
development of automated defect recognition algorithms, improvements into the probability
of detection of defects, digital image qualification criteria, validation of the various
radiographic hardware and software, and laboratory and field trials of the completed
systems.

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Acknowledgements

FilmFree is a collaboration between the following organisations: TWI Ltd (UK), CIT Ltd
(UK), Innospexion ApS (Denmark), AJAT Ltd (Finland), Advanced Technology Group
SRO (Czech Republic), Isotest Engineering SRL (Italy), Tecnitest Ingenieros SL (Spain),
Trueflaw Ltd (Finland), Kingston Computer Consultancy Ltd (UK), NDT Consultants Ltd
(UK), Zenon SA (Greece), Technic Control Ltd (Poland), Industrial Control Machines SA
(Belgium), X-Tek Systems Ltd (UK), Compra GmbH (Germany), Nexus Engineering Ltd
(Bulgaria), Airbus Ltd (France & UK), EADS CCR - Groupement d'Interet Economique
(France), Wytwornia Sprzetu Komunikacyjnego PZL - Rzeszow SA (Poland), Total
(France), Rolls Royce Plc (UK), Advantica Ltd (UK), Die Bahn System Technik
(Germany), Helenic Society of Non Destructive Testing (Greece), Castings Technology
International (UK), Bulgarian Welding Society (Bulgaria), Commissariat a l'Energie
Atomique (France), Federal Institute for Materials Research and Testing (Germany),
Technical University of Sofia (Bulgaria), Technical University of Szczecin (Poland), LME
Ltd (UK), and ICL Ltd (UK).

The Project is co-ordinated and managed by TWI Ltd and is partly funded by the EC under
the IP SME programme, reference number: NMP2-CT-2005-515746.