FMEA Based Risk Assessment of Component Failure Modes in Industrial Radiography

Abstract

Industrial radiography has its inimitable role in non-destructive examinations. Industrial radiography devices, consisting of significantly high activity of the radioisotopes, are operated manually by remotely held control unit. Malfunctioning of these devices may cause potential exposure to the operator and nearby public, and thus should be practiced under a systematic risk control. To ensure the radiation safety, proactive risk assessment should be implemented. Risk assessment in industrial radiography using the Failure Modes & Effect Analysis (FMEA) for the design and operation of industrial radiography exposure devices has been carried out in this study. Total 56 component failure modes were identified and Risk Priority Numbers (RPNs) were assigned by the FMEA expert team, based on the field experience and reported failure data of various components. Results shows all the identified failure modes have RPN in the range of 04 to 216 and most of the higher RPN are due to low detectability and high severity levels. Assessment reveals that increasing failure detectability is a practical and feasible approach to reduce the risk in most of the failure modes of industrial radiography devices. Actions for reducing RPN for each failure mode have been suggested. Feasibility of FMEA for risk assessment in industrial radiography has been established by this study