UT Quality/UT Quality USA servicesServices/Digital radiography
Digital radiography captures the image on a digital detector for immediate viewing. The radiograph is interpreted against the same code acceptance criteria as film, and it is a digital record from the moment it is taken, with no darkroom between the exposure and the accept-or-repair call.
These are the techniques our crews run, matched to the weld, the access and the schedule.
A digital detector panel shot with an X-ray tube. The tube is energized only for the exposure, so there is no isotope on the job and the exclusion boundary is smaller.
Where a tube will not fit the geometry or the access, the same digital panels are shot with a gamma source. Iridium-192 covers up to about 2.5 inches of penetrated steel; beyond that the work moves to cobalt-60 or a linear accelerator.
Conformable (bendable) panels that wrap the curve of the pipe instead of standing off it, for curved surfaces and tight access.
A reusable phosphor imaging plate, exposed like film and then scanned into a digital image. Flexible for awkward geometry, with no chemical development.
A live radiographic image during the exposure rather than a single static shot, for fast screening and access-limited components.
Automated radiography of mainline girth welds, shot from inside the line.
The radiograph comes up on screen at the job, not an hour later out of a darkroom. Image-quality indicators and weld identification are read on the same image that goes into the record.
Density and contrast can be adjusted on screen without another exposure, and the accept or repair call is made against the governing code.
The file is archived, retrieved and shared as a digital record. There is no film to file, lose or scan later.
On a representative 24-inch weld: about 10 minutes to a usable digital image, against roughly 57 minutes for film (about 12 minutes of exposure plus 45 minutes of development).
Every conventional exposure adds about 45 minutes of film development before the image is usable. Digital has no development step.
Welds are interpreted on screen on the same shift, so repairs are found while the crew and equipment are still at the joint.
Lower source strength and smaller boundaries mean less exposure for crews and the public, and less of the spread shut down during shots.
Field DR and CR on girth welds and tie-ins; DR on process piping, vessel seams and nozzle welds to ASME B31.3 and Section VIII; structural and fabricated welds in the shop and the field.
Conventional RT exposes film that is chemically developed. Digital radiography (DR) captures the image directly on a digital detector for immediate viewing. Computed radiography (CR) uses a reusable phosphor plate that is scanned into a digital image. All three are interpreted against the same code acceptance criteria.
Both. A tube is energized only for the exposure, which keeps the exclusion boundary smaller and puts no isotope on the job. Where the geometry or access rules a tube out, the same digital panels are shot with a gamma source.
Iridium-192 covers up to about 2.5 inches of penetrated steel. Beyond that the work moves to cobalt-60 or a linear accelerator, or, on heavy wall, to automated ultrasonics.
The radiograph is interpreted against the same acceptance criteria as film: API 1104, ASME B31 or ASME Section V/VIII, as your specification calls out, using the procedure qualified for the project.
Technicians are certified Level I, II and III to our written practice under ASNT SNT-TC-1A / ANSI/ASNT CP-189, with Level III oversight of procedures and interpretation.
Tell us the line, the pipe size and wall, and the code, and a UT Quality representative will follow up.
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