Improving Global Quality of Life

In submerged arc welding one can reach very high deposition rates, 50 kg/h by multiple electrodes
(Figure 5.14), which is required for heavy welding such as wind power towers.
Figure 5.14 Submerged arc welding
with two tandem-wire heads and
cold wire added SCWTM (Reproduced
courtesy: ESAB)
Tandem MIG/MAG welding is another process attracting a lot of interest but there are still fairly few
in regular production. The automotive industry is increasingly using different forms of brazing such as
MIG/MAG, Plasma and Laser brazing for zinc coated sheets to reduce the amount of pores in the weld metal
and with acceptable mechanical joint properties.
In accordance with modern quality management strategies (ISO 9004), non-destructive inspection (NDI)
and evaluation (NDE) are always embedded as continuous tasks into the quality circle conducted during
the lifetime of a product, beginning with the design phase of a component and ending with the recycling
phase. NDI includes testing, detection, classification and sizing of imperfections (pores, inclusions, shrinkage
cavities, cracks, etc.) in material joints and components. Clearly safety-relevant components require NDE to
be regulated by technical rules, standards and/or laws throughout their production and operation lifetime.
NDI and NDE contribute to the assurance of the product’s integrity by characterising tolerable findings and
relevant material degradation (corrosion, fatigue, creep, thermal ageing, and synergies) limiting the lifetime.
NDI/NDE techniques developed in the last decade have opened new fields of application.
NDI/NDE techniques are integrated in the early phases of product design in the industrial R&D-laboratories
and contribute to the quality strategy, i.e. to design the basic safety of components. During the design
phase of the component the NDE procedures for testing after production and in service are also designed.
Modelling of NDE is a strong tool for technical inspection justification. In the aviation industry this “concurrent
engineering” approach absolutely is a must when “damage tolerance” principles are to be fulfilled in design.
The use of NDI/NDE gives increases in “intelligent processing” in order to assess quality characteristics which
can be estimated often only destructively and which are parameters for process diagnosis, monitoring, and
control; for instance mechanical properties like hardness, yield or tensile strength or toughness parameters.
As part of the maintenance strategy and in combination with fracture and fatigue mechanics, NDE contributes
to lifetime prediction delivering input parameters for failure assessment by applying “fitness for service” (FFS)
approaches. Software based on this state-of-the-art technology taking into account probabilistic features is
under development worldwide, mainly for applications in transportation, pipeline servicing, nuclear and
aviation industries. The most modern approach in quality management relies however on online monitoring
technology of the full structure. Here also, the aviation industry is the front-runner in the technology race
of “structural health monitoring” (SHM). The challenge is inspection reliability by developing low-cost but
highly durable (40 years in aviation) sensors. Future applications are in civil engineering (bridges, off-shore
structures, wind energy mills) and in monitoring of vehicles (air planes, ships, railway, and cars).
NDE like other technologies too can benefit from the mainstream microelectronics and computer-science,
which have revolutionised the development speed and have enabled the development of new testing
technology, with the support of automation and robotics.
44 Improving Global Quality of Life Through Optimum Use and Innovation of Welding and Joining Technologies