Available Technologies

Executive Summary

Eddy Current Testing (ECT) is a well-established method for in-situ determination of defects in conductive materials offering the ability to perform nondestructive evaluation without compromising equipment. Simple ECT can detect defects but often does not provide enough detail to determine whether or not a defective piece of equipment needs to be withdrawn or simply monitored for future maintenance. Withdrawal of the equipment may not be necessary if the defect is functionally insignificant. Our solution is a portable system that will characterize defects quickly in the field. Currently, such characterizations are not done because advanced eddy current computations involve complex computation for proper defect characterization.

Description of Technology

Michigan State University has developed an eddy current testing device that analyzes and characterizes defects. The device determines the presence, shape, and location of internal and external defects of conductive materials to facilitate classification. Once characterization is completed, appropriate decisions can be made on whether or not withdrawal of the equipment or is necessary.

Key Benefits

• Higher quality ECT: Determines the presence, shape, and location of defects to facilitate classification in a conductive material
• Faster processing time: Expedites the process of locating and characterizing corrosion and other defects in a material from over a 24 hour period to approximately 30 minutes per defect
• Substrate compatibility: Applicable to conductive materials including titanium and composite materials

Applications

• Pipelines - ECT is a highly effective technique for detection of cracks
• Power plant - Remote Field ECT is applied for detecting wall loss in Boiler tubes and other heat exchanges within the power plant
• Aircraft - ECT is a very valuable tool in helping detect defects in aircraft materials and whether or not defects will require grounding of the aircraft

Patent Status:

Patent application published, no. 20160343106

Licensing Rights Available

Full licensing rights available

Inventors: Samuel Hoole, Sivamayam Sivasuthan, Victor Uthayakumar

Tech ID: TEC2014-0112