Liquid penetrant inspection, often referred to as LPI, is one of the most commonly used nondestructive evaluation methods. It is highly sought after due to two of its main qualities – the ease of use that it offers and its amazing flexibility. LPI inspection, using equipment such as a LPI Penetrant Line can be used to inspect almost any material, as long as its surface is not very porous or rough. Materials commonly inspected using liquid penetrant inspection lines include metal, glass, ceramics, rubber and plastic.
LPI serves many applications across a massive array of industries, with these lines performing inspections ranging from vehicle spark plugs to critical airplane components. Lines are able to test both small areas through applying a spray and using a cotton swab, and to test inspect large areas quickly. These machines have changed everything, able to check materials for a huge range of flaws and defects, including but not limited to: fatigue cracks, quench cracks, grinding cracks, overload fractures, impact fractures, porosity, laps, seams, pin holes and lack of fusion.
Liquid penetrant inspection offers multiple amazing advantages such as:
- A high sensitivity to small surface discontinuities
- Very few limitations (including metallic and nonmetallic, magnetic and nonmagnetic, and conductive and nonconductive materials may be inspected.
- Large areas and large volumes of parts/materials can be inspected rapidly and at low cost
- Parts with complex geometric shapes are routinely inspected
- Indications are produced directly on the surface of the part and constitute a visual representation of the flaw
- Aerosol spray cans make penetrant materials very portable
- Penetrant materials and associated equipment are relatively inexpensive in comparison to other major testing equipment
Any companies looking for the best LPI inspection lines and systems should check out the UK’s best supplier – ATH NDT Ltd.
ATH NDT is England’s Number 1 manufacturer of liquid penetrant lines and chemical processing systems, with a number of major customers including but not limited to British Engineering Ltd, Hanson Springs, The Welding Institute & Heroux Devtek, and offer lines and systems suitable for all companies regardless of their individual needs and requirements.
In addition to this ATH NDT are also a long-established NDT service provider acting as a “one stop shop” to every area of the Non-Destructive Testing industry. The company is home to many experienced level 3 consultants all holding years and years of hands on experience and able to offer an array of high-quality level 3 services, including data card approvals NADCAP preparation, 24/7 support and more.
Anyone looking for more information about ATH NDT and the services that they provide should visit their website today, where we are certain that they will be able to find everything that they are looking for and more.