Cracks for the aerospace industry

The constant need to improve existing and to create new NDT-methods poses challenges to the Aerospace industry. Samples with true natural cracks can be used to test and develop new inspection techniques and confirm the performance of existing ones.

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As NDT methods develop further, the requirements for flawed specimen increase. Here are three trends in aerospace NDT that we have noticed:

1. The push for smaller and smaller cracks. More sensitive methods find smaller flaws than previous methods.
2. Increase in probability of detection (POD) studies done with real cracks. The perfomance of new methods needs to be demostrated and POD studies with real flaws are the industry gold standard. POD studies with standard samples are also more affordable than before, which helps this development. The push for smaller cracks is visible in POD sample sets as well, as the likely-to-miss range for the methods is lower.
3. POD studies done with real components. In critical components, the cost-effective solution of simplified sample POD studies is not always good enough. Real flaws in real components give the best possible results.

Trueflaw provides both standard sample sets for POD studies as well as flaw manufacturing on real samples.

Natural characteristics

Trueflaw cracks are grown with a natural thermal fatigue process and therefore have the same characteristics as service-induced cracks. We can control the length, depth and location of the cracks.

Directly on your mockups, or as a convenient set

Cracks can be produced on real components. Purpose made or even scrapped samples can be used. The crack growth process is automated and we can work on several samples in parallel. This allows highly efficient manufacturing, and we even can produce the large sets of cracks required for POD evaluation.

Ensure the accuracy of your aerospace inspection

We are here to help you. Please contact Kaisa Miettinen (kaisa@trueflaw.com, +358 50 3656862) or Iikka Virkkunen (iikka@trueflaw.com, +358 45 6354415) to discuss more.