COMPUTER-AIDED PROCESS PLANNING FOR NON-DESTRUCTIVE TESTING

Abstract

This chapter discusses the possibility of the use of personal computers for nondestructive testing (NDT) process planning and to evaluate the level of the developed algorithm-based typified NDT processes. The operations and runs of the typified NDT processes written down in the production charts, in essence and external features, could be considered algorithms for solving the task for determining the condition and evaluating the quality of the object under NDT. On the other hand, the availability of unified operations, runs, and standard means for NDT—included in the operations classifier, NDT devices, and adaptors—facilitates process programming and the use of computers of limited memory capacity that quite satisfy the needs of mass NDT practice. The algorithm-based typified NDT processes are the specially developed typified NDT processes that permit the use of computers for their process planning, monitoring, and evaluation. The NDT process planning could be automated on the basis of specially developed algorithm-based typified NDT processes with the use of 16-bit personal computer commercially available for wide practical application. The applied software packages and the nine algorithm-based typified NDT processes as developed ensure high technical NDT level, minimize the possibility for errors in process planning, increase labor productivity rate of the process engineer, and rationalize the jobs for NDT process planning that are applied by a quite large number of users.