Non-destructive testing in industry

N DT and the automobile industry

R. J. Brown

The author discusses the place of quality control in the automobile industry and the
increasing demands for quality expressed in recent legislation. He points out the advan-
tages of ndt as a means of reaching quality goals. Difficulties remain even with ndt and
these present a challenge to the engineer. Standards of acceptance, however, will always
be a field for careful consideration because no method of assurance is infallible and
allowance must be made in the standards. The author outlines the management of a
quality policy and concludes that ndt is an economic and moral necessity in his industry.

The economic viability of any manufacturing organization
is of necessity based upon detailed consideration of the
many factors contributing to minimum manufacturing
costs; among these factors is the requirement not only to
specify in detail the materials to be used, but also the
required degree of freedom from defects likely to impair
their suitability both during manufacture and in ultimate
service. Any deviation from the specification requirements
or the quality levels involved, if not detected at the time of
receipt of the material, may involve the production of com-
ponents which will be rejected at a late stage of manufacture,
when only the cost of the material is normally recoverable,
with all consequential cost being the responsibility of the
user. Additionally there is the distinct possibility of defec-
tive parts being put into service, with the likelihood of ulti-
mate failure which could involve bodily injury or even loss
of life if the quality-control procedures are not adequate
for their detection.
In such a highly competitive industry as the automobile
industry, with the high production rates involved, there is
the additional need to ensure consistency of the inherent
properties of the materials employed in order to avoid
relatively minor differences which could affect such proper-
ties as formability, machineability, or heat-treatment respor~e.
The high standards of quality which are necess~y have
ensured that close consideration has been given to the intro-
duction and development of ndt procedures over the years.
More recently an added impetus has arisen from the pro-
mulgation of the American National Traffic and Motor
Vehicles Act of 1966, which establishes minimum standards
R. J. Brown is manager of the production laboratories of British
Leyland UK Ltd, Austin Morris Group, Longbridge, Birmingham,
UK
for vehicle performance or equipment performance. The
term 'equipment' covers 'systems, parts or components
of a motor vehicle as originally manufactured o r . . . sold
fox replacement or i m p r o v e m e n t . . , or as an accessory or
addition to the vehicle'. In the Act 'defect' relates to
'performance, construction, components or materials'.
The Act also requires that every manufacturer 'shall establish
and maintain such records, make such reports, and provide
such i n f o r m a t i o n . . , to determine whether such manufac-
turer has acted or is acting in compliance w i t h . . , motor
vehicle safety standards'.
Defects within the meaning of the Act have to be notified
to the customer and dealer concerned, by 'certified mail'
to the customer, and by 'certified mail or other more
expeditious means' to the dealer, and copies of the notifica-
tion have also to be supplied to the Federal Authorities.
A fundamental requkement of the Act is that there shall
be evidence that due care has been exercised during manu-
facture to ensure conformity with the design requirements
and freedom from defective conditions likely to impair
safety: this must be backed up with documentary evidence.
The following are therefore the basic requirements:
documentation that the design has been validated;
documentation of the manufacturing procedures;
certification by inspection records that design require-
ments and manufacturing procedures have been complied
with;
retention of the records for an appropriate period from
the date of manufacture of the vehicle; this is necessary
in order to facilitate a re-call campaign should this for
any reason be necessary.

NON-DESTRUCTIVE TESTING . APRIL 1973 81

The introduction of the US Federal Safety Standards might could he be informed that the accident resulted from the use
be interpreted as implying that the motor industry has been of a rogue component which had escaped the statistical
remiss in the past not only in basic design, but also in the inspection net, when the adoption of an automated ndt
operation of factory processes, and in the maintenance of procedure would have ensured the rejection of defective
adequate inspection standards. From the British point of parts.
view the safety aspect of automobiles has always been of
Manually operated ndt methods show a considerable saving
paramount importance to the manufacturer, and motor
in time with an increased numerical level of testing in com-
cars of British origin have always maintained an excellent
parison with such traditional methods of test such as inden-
safety record throughout the world. Various methods of
tation hardness testing, chemical spot or spark testing,
ndt have been integrated into the automobile industry as case depth determinations, and bar end examinations for
the necessity arose, although in the UK, ndt is not a statutory central defects but if ndt methods are automated inspection
requirement of the manufacturing operation. Its primary can be at a 100% level with labour content at an absolute
use has been, and continues to be to ensure that the neces-
minimum. An example of the automated application of ndt
sary quality levels of parts regarded as being safety-critical is the rotating-probe ultrasonic bar and tube tester for the
are maintained, and to avoid the supply or acceptance of detection of both longitudinal and transverse cracks, and
unsatisfactory material which would cause difficulties
centre-line defects in bar stock (Fig. 1). Such equipment
during the production processes. Inspection costs are not
can be installed, if necessary, in the direct production line
necessarily reduced by ndt, but quality control becomes more
in a steel mill, and it is provided with facilities for auto-
effective. matically spray painting the defective areas of materials,
or for sorting the defective from the acceptable material.
Traditional test methods have many disadvantages: mdenta-
Why ndt?
tion hardness testing does not necessarily cause the part to
The obvious answer is, to ensure the rejection of unsatis- be rendered unfit for service, but it normally requires sur-
factory material, or, ultimately, to avoid scrapping of finished face preparation and it disfigures. Chemical spot testing or
components because of defects. There are many traditional the alternative of spark testing for the confirmation of steel
methods of test which are not truly destructive, but are composition requires considerable handling of material and
not defined as ndt procedures, an example being indenta- some degree of skill, whereas automated ndt while possibly
tion hardness testing. The primary reason for adopting involving some element of material handling and the prob-
ndt is that quality control of the material becomes more able employment of a reference sample, eliminates both the
effective with similar or even reduced labour costs as com- need for a skilled operator and also operator fatigue which
pared with conventional inspection methods, associated can lead to misinterpretation of the test indications of the
with the fact that the inherent quality of materials can be type produced by such techniques as spark testing and
measured without the preparation of special test specimens. magnetic-particle crack detection.
A wide spectrum of ndt procedures has been employed in Inspection of castings for freedom from unsoundness and
this country by the automobile manufacturer since virtually for metallurgical quality is normally only by sampling,
the start of ndt technology, including such elementary often involving destructive testing: in comparison sonic
tests as the ringing of castings, the oil and chalk test, and testing makes possible inspection for inherent quality at
acid pickling. Magnetic particle testing for the detection a 100% level at reasonable cost without any preparation
of cracks was adopted in the inter-war years, magnetic sort- of the component. Sonic testing for the quality of SG
ing for composition and mechanical property differences
during the war, and the more sophisticated methods of ndt
in the post-war years.
These methods were employed as required when specific
problems occurred, rather than as routine procedures applied
for example, to all those materials involved in the manufacture
of safety-critical components. This practice has been justi-
fied by the virtual absence of failures in service of the
stressed components of automobiles, but there is increasing
use by the automobile industry of ndt as a precautionary
measure, associated with an increasing demand for steel
which has been inspected to pre-determined levels of surface
and central quality, and general metallurgical consistency,
so that automated ndt procedures have become essential.
With ndt, in-line quality control within the manufacturing
plant becomes a possibility: in fact it can lead to automated
process control, an example being utilizing variations in the
test coil signal in continuous high-frequency induction-
hardening machines to trigger off any necessary adjustments
in the level of hf power fed to the inductors in order to
control the desired depth of hardening. However, a high
proportion of inspection procedures depend upon statistical Fig.1 Bar and tube is commonly tested automatically for longi-
methods of sampling and, while these are useful for quality tudinal and transverse cracks by using rotating-probe ultrasonic
control, it would be of no interest to the victim of a fatality equipment (courtesy of Wells-Krautkramer Ltd)

82 N O N - D E S T R U C T I V E T E S T I N G . A P R I L 1973

Fig.2 The relationship between a casting's graphite structure
and its resonant frequency is used as the principle of this testing
equipment (courtesy of the British Cast Iron Research Association)
Fig.3 Castings on a sonic testing rig are vibrated and the resonance
frequency is detected; if this frequency is outside a chosen range
the piece is marked (courtesy of the Dartmouth Auto Castings
Ltd and the British Cast Iron Research Association)
iron crankshafts is dependant upon the relationship between
the resonant frequency of the casting and its graphite
structure (Figs 2, 3). In this instance the graphite structure
is related to mechanical strength. In the installation shown
the casting is caused to vibrate by an exciting transducer
and the resonant frequency determined from the output
of the detecting transducer; and provision is made for
castings outside the pre-selected resonance range to be
identified by spray painting.
Problems in n d t
Reference has already been made to the problem of operator
fatigue with some of the earlier manual methods of ndt;
this has now been largely overcome by the latest methods of
ndt, and their automation on the factory floor, which allow
not only testing for mechanical defects, but also for varia-
tions in inherent quality in a single test machine. A serious
problem, however with the more recent sophisticated
methods of ndt is lack of confidence, as the procedures
N O N - D E S T R U C T I V E T E S T I N G . A P R I L 1973
are not yet fully proved on a general industrial scale, the
other problem being the sophistication and high cost of
the necessarily specialized equipment. Thus, the steel
industry will accept an order for steel in which the standard
of quality is specified not only in respect of composition
and mechanical properties, but also the level of freedom
from central defects, of surface defects, and of depth of
decarburization, and will make the appropriate charge for
the inspection procedures involved. They will certify that
the necessary tests have been carried out, but are as yet
unwilling to guarantee that the material meets the require-
ments as laid down by the customer.
Although this attitude may be essentially a legal quibble,
it is nevertheless a limiting factor in the acceptance by the
user of the increased charges made for ndt procedures for
controlling quality levels. It is therefore necessary for
the ndt technologist to establish beyond doubt the reli-
ability of the various techniques which are available, and
which in some instance may be related to improvements
in the method of coupling the test probes to the surface of
the work. Improved coupling has been achieved either by
rotating the work within the coils or probes, or alternately
rotating these around the work, thus ensuring that the total
surface is scanned and the effect of the variation in the gap
between the probe or coil and the work surface minimized.
The problem which arises with the eddy-current method of
testing for the cracking of materials of round or sectional
shapes has been a problem of signal variations resulting
from minor differences in metallurgical quality and in
dealing with minor irregularity in section and out-of-
straightness of the material. This has been overcome by
use of a saturation coil, and employing two secondary test
coils in close proximity but connected differentially. In
the absence of cracks the signal between these two coils is
balanced, whereas the presence of a crack produces an
out-of-balance signal which is processed electronically and
can be used to operate a paint spray to identify defective
material, or to operate a sorting gate (Fig.4).
The sophistication of modern ndt equipment makes a back-
up service of skilled technicians, and also a metallurgist to
provide information on the parameters which have to be
controlled, an essential requirement. For the ndt of com-
Fig.4 The rotating head and driving motor of this eddy-current
crack detector are revealed by lifting the side plate and dropping
the coil assembly through 90 ° (courtesy of Teledictor Ltd)
83
ponents of irregular contour, the design of highly specialized
handling equipment becomes necessary, particularly where
the ultimate in quality and large numbers of components
are involved: equipment of this type is necessarily costly,
particularly if it is one-off and involves the development
of individual handling equipment.
It might be inferred that ndt is related specifically to the
inspection of material in the raw form, as bars, forgings or
castings, but this is not the case. There is however a division
of opinion as to the application of ndt before delivery of
material to the user, or by the user after delivery and prior
to issue from the stores: also whether ndt should be applied
for the inspection of the finished part. In deciding the
location of testing of raw material, comparative economics
are involved, whether it is cheaper to pay a premium for
material inspected by the manufacturer, or for the user to
purchase and operate the necessary ndt equipment. The
case for ndt at the raw stage has already been stated; it
avoids the processing of defective material with rejection
after costly preparation. Testing of the finished part has
the advantage of avoiding putting into service products
which are defective for any reason whatsoever, whether the
material was defective as supplied or has been rendered
defective during manufacture, eg by cracking during heat
treatment.
An example of specialized equipment for the ndt of steer-
ing and track-rod ball ends is shown in Fig.5. This employs
a spinning eddy-current probe for the detection of cracks
in the surface of both the spherical and and the taper shank.
The machine is hopper fed with an electronically operated
gate for the separation of sound and defective components.
NDT is increasingly employed by the motor industry for
inspection for cracks and for ensuring conformity with the
specified mechanical properties, and particularly for
testing items designated as safety-critical or stressed items
which although not constituting a safety hazard in the
accepted sense, nevertheless would cause costly damage
should they fail, examples being crankshafts, conn rods,
gudgeon pins.
Use of ndt data
Although ndt is primarily a tool of inspection, conducted
either by statistical sampling or preferably continuously,
it is obviously a means of obtaining quite close quality
control of the product, be it in the form of raw stock or
manufactured article. Manually operated methods of ndt
are suitable for monitoring for quality control those para-
meters which are of interest and which are suitable for such
methods of test in order that early adjustment can be made
to the manufacturing operations involved. They are also
an extremely useful tool for operational research, by virtue
of the fact that continuous or semicontinuous monitoring
of the product is possible when variations in the processing
procedure are being investigated, without the need for
frequent stoppages for examination by traditional destruc-
tive methods.
Standards of acceptance
These will of necessity vary appreciably according to the
nature of the product and the service for which it is required.
For those components of motor vehicles which are regarded
84
Fig.5 Eddy-current testing equipment can be adapted to very
specialized use such as for steering and track-rod ends (courtesy
of GKN and Wells-Krautkramer Ltd)
as safety-critical, it might be postulated that the only
acceptable standard is one of nil defects, but in an imperfect
world such an ideal is impossible to maintain and reason
has to prevail in laying down permissible standards of
acceptance in relation to defects. Alternatively methods of
production have to be evolved which will ensure that those
defects which do occur will be so slight as to have no effect
on performance in service, and that critcally stressed areas
are rendered free from defects by removal of any defective
material during machining. NDT procedures are not in
themselves infallible, and some tolerance is necessary in
the standards which are established. Acceptance standards
are normally determined by the quality engineer. They
apply either to every component or piece of material
involved, or to representative samples based upon statistical
quality-control procedures. The aim is always a nil defect
level, particularly where automated testing becomes possible.
Economics and management
The responsibility for policy in the field of ndt testing
within the automobile industry is primarily that of the
quality executive, possibly in collaboration with the
product engineer. Those areas in which ndt is regarded
as an essential commitment are based upon the consequen-
tial effects of the failure of individual components in service
particularly when failure would involve a safety critical
component such as those incorporated in steering, suspen-
sion, and braking assemblies. Current policy is to some
extent stimulated by the requirements of the US Federal
Safety Standards, as the adoption of appropriate ndt
procedures, whether applied to the raw materials employed
or to the finished product, is indicative of an awareness
of the need to meet the rquirements these standards to
exercise 'due care' during manufacture.
Although the basic items of ndt equipment are not parti-
cularly expensive the overall cost of an automated installa-
tion is relatively high, and when consideration is given to
the fact that the expenditure involved can only be indirectly
related to profitability, a very good case has to be made for
the necessary expenditure to be sanctioned. The record
of the British motor industry in the field of overall safety
N O N - D E S T R U C T I V E T E S T I N G . A P R I L 1973
is exceptionally high, and there is naturally some resistance
to expenditure on capital equipment, and upon the employ-
ment of operators for functions which are not directly
productive. In the absence of evidence of service failures
which might justify the expenditure, or excessive manufac-
turing costs resulting from the use of defective material, only
moral responsibility can be advanced for such expenditure.
Responsibility for the recruitment and training of staff to
operate ndt procedures is once again that of the quality
executive, and it is usual to take advantage of training
schemes and conferences related to such techniques,
organized by the manufacturers of such equipment, by
professional institutions, and by universities and colleges
of technology. The modern techniques and the apparatus
employed have become so highly technical that there will
be an increasing demand for personnel qualified not only
as the result of practical experience, but also certified as
ndt technicians, although formalized courses for this
purpose are very much in the pioneering stage.
Conclusions
NDT procedures are employed in the automobile industry
for the following reasons:
to meet the moral obligation of the manufacturer to
safeguard the customer against personal harm due to
possible failure of essential components caused by the
presence of defects or the use of incorrect material;
NON-DESTRUCTIVE TESTING. APRIL 1973
to ensure trouble-free operation by the customer and
reduce warranty costs which would result from the failure
or malfunctioning of any component of the vehicle
resulting from defects whatever their origin;
to prevent defective or otherwise unsatisfactory material
going into production and so reducing manufacturing
efficiency, by causing damage to tools, interruption of
production rates or rejection or a combination of these
at later stages after costly manufacturing operations have
been completed.
Although ndt may involve the installation of costly equip-
mant, with an apparent increase in overhead and manufactur-
ing costs, this should be offset against the economies
resulting from early rejection of defective material, and
a probable reduction in warranty costs. The balance
between these cost areas has to be considered very carefully,
but where safety-critical components are involved and
optimum overall quality is vital, then the increased costs
can be justified, if not on economic, at least on moral
grounds.
NDT is regarded by the automobile industry not only as
an exceptionally useful tool, which when used intelligently
will ensure the suitability of the finished item for the
purpose for which it was designed, but also as a tool which
will enable greater effieiencies to be achieved in manufacture.
The examples of quality are typical, but are certainly not
exhaustive of the use made of ndt procedures by the auto-
mobile industry.
85