Inspection of pipe segments with longitudinal and spiral welds at pipe mills
Even though X-ray inspection competes with other technologies at pipe mills, for example ultrasonics, as an imaging technology radiography offers decisive advantages.
Despite automated welding processes, irregularities in welds can still occur. Pore cells, bonding flaws and insufficient full-penetration welds are only a few of the defects to be detected using YXLON pipe inspection systems in compliance with DIN EN ISO 6520. In contrast to other technologies, difficult areas like the ends of pipe segments can also be inspected with certainty using X-rays. Above and beyond this, for certain regions of the weld an inspection involving different technologies is frequently stipulated for reasons dealing with safety, for instance in the case of abutting spiral-weld sections. X-ray systems – using film, image intensifiers, or increasingly using digital flat-panel detectors – have been deployed successfully for years in quality assurance during pipe production for both spot-check sample and 100% inspection.
Besides the above, imaging X-ray technology has the decisive advantage of being able to document the quality of weld connections during manufacturing extremely well, for instance through video recordings of the inspection in a moving image. Defects can be detected better and faster usinig Y.HDR-Inspect.
We offer you a wide range of X-ray techniques at our application centers. We design solutions that replace X-ray films, provide radioscopy and fully automatic defect recognition in X-ray images, as well as computed tomography services for scanning inspection items ranging from micro-CT to CT using a linear accelerator.