An intelligent approach to inspection qualification

In safety critical components, the capability of an inspection may need to be demonstrated by an independent process of inspection qualification (IQ). Due to the skill level of the manpower involved, IQ is both costly and time consuming. Therefore, an approach that can aid the production of the required documentation would be beneficial. This paper presents a practical example in the form of a case study, which demonstrates how an intelligent approach to IQ, utilising smart software operating within the context of a non-destructive testing Workbench, can be used to evaluate the capability of an ultrasonic inspection. This is accomplished using four interactive software tools which include: a beam-coverage analyser, a worst-case defect search engine, a flaw modelling expert system and a case-based reasoning system to retrieve previously measured data. This paper discusses the motivation for such an approach and the benefits it provides.