Nondestructive Evaluation Technology and Reliability of Products

It is well known that the reliability of materials of mechanical products is becoming more and more important not only for assurance of quality, but for international competition of products. In order to assure the reliability of materials or mechanical products nondestructive evaluation (NDE) techniques are playing more important roles. The existence of Internal defects in materials or mechanical parts is served as crack initiation site during the various loading condition. Historically, nondestructive evaluation (NDE) technique has been used almost exclusively for detecting microscopic discontinuities In materials or mechanical parts after they have been in service to expand the role of the NDE to include all aspects of materials production and application. Research efforts are being directed at developing and perfecting NDE techniques capable of monitoring (1) materials production processes (2) material integrity following transport, storage and fabrication and (3) the amount and rate of degradation during service. In addition, efforts are underway to develop technique capable of quantitative discontinuity sizing, permitting determination of response using fracture mechanics analysis, as well as techniques for quantitative materials characterization to replace the qualitative techniques used in the past. In this paper, the important role of NDE technology for reliability assurance of materials/mechanical parts is introduced.