On May 22, 2010, we had the great pleasure to welcome a distinguished PT expert: William E. MOOZ, the very active life-blood of Met-L-Chek, a Californian company renowned the world over - at least in the PT world!  Bill Mooz was anxious to pay us a visit, and we deeply thank him for it.

Next month we will not miss the opportunity to publish the report of our talks with him on our Website.

Our paper published in the “Materials Evaluation” journal

As announced last month in our editorial, our paper titled "MT/PT Units. Follow the Rules and Stop the Mess” has been published in Materials Evaluation (Volume 68, Number 5, May 2010), the ASNT’s (American Society for Nondestructive Testing) monthly journal.

We have been given by ASNT the authorization to publish it in the English version of our Website, along the French version. The English version has been edited for publication. In fact the French version was the original document and is a bit longer.

Springtime is back with the swallows, but not alone …

One more time, we can see it as a bad habit, a 36-month research program aimed at replacing both PT/MT by UT is set in motion. In fact, this program would be limited to the inspection of welds.

The excuse is that PT and MT are polluting methods, putting aside the waste water treatment installations on many PT lines, and the increasing use of water-based magnetic inks.

What is the purpose of a skull-and-crossbones symbol shown as a given for these two methods, in the newsletter of one of the involved companies?

Answer: This probably to make a wrong link in readers’ minds between PT/MT chemicals and deadly hazards! Renowned PT and MT materials suppliers do not market products which need such a labelling.

Under the pretext of cars and planes polluting our environment, may they be advantageously replaced for:
• Sail, oar or pedal boat on a Paris- New York return?
• Bicycle on a Paris-Peking return?

It takes us back to the mid ‘90s, when ACFM (Alternative Current Field Measurement) was marketed for crack detection in welded structures.

Some people then thought that ACFM would replace MT. Nevertheless, some ACFM users even bought some permanent magnets. Guess why?

Would this new program mean that ACFM did not reach its goal and that the new program will?

We are not sure!

As a matter of fact, using complex, bulky equipments with on-board electronics, prone to bugging, may be thought of on large parts or for mass-produced parts. But how could one replace the 3-spray can kit sufficient for many on-site inspections of welds? Replace the electromagnet and its one spray can of magnetic ink? Is there any method simpler, whose efficiency is well known, whose limits also are well known than these two methods?

Even for mass-production inspection fluorescent penetrant inspection flexibility, when performed by a human being, cannot be replaced by machines which need to be calibrated for every kind of part, every curve radius. Every NDT method has its use. To substantiate this, while the last forty years have seen several “gurus” foretelling the end of PT...both of us have written a conference about PT future and Year 2060 which will be given in the 10th European Conference on NDT in June 2010 in Moscow.

We invite you to read our Website in May 2013 to have a look on the situation then!

Référence

(*) This paper’s title refers to a symphonic composition of the American composer George Gershwin: he took inspiration from the time he spent in Paris in the 1920s, and to a 1951 musical, Gene Kelly, Leslie Caron, Oscar Levant, Georges Guétary and Nina Foch being the actors/actresses.

(**) ‘‘Paris is at her best in May’’ (J’aime Paris au mois de mai’’), song written in 1965 by Charles Aznavour (inducted into Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1996), Gene Lees and Pierre Roche.