The operation can be undertaken both at the purpose built facilities at our West Midlands facility or on site at the clients location. The West midlands testing facility offers state of the art testing via a modern, purpose built water washable NDT system allowing for efficient and cost effective testing of large batch quantities. On site testing can be undertaken by means of Dye penetrant testing using red dye colour contrast  – this is used mainly for the inspection of castings, forgings and welds etc.

Dye Penetrant Testing is used for the detection of surface breaking defects in all non-porous ferrous and non-ferrous materials of any size including metals, plastics and ceramics.

Typical applications would be forged, cast or welded components which suffer from a high risk of cracking and other surface flaws.

A visible or fluorescent dye (either solvent or water based) is applied to the surface of the component and can be applied in a variety of processes including spraying, brushing, dipping or full immersion of the component into the dye element.

During the penetration time (dwell time), the dye penetrates any surface breaking flaws through ‘capillary action’. Excess dye is removed from the surface of the item under test and a developing agent is applied, this draws the dye out of any surface breaking flaws through a process of reverse ‘capillary action’ revealing any flaws in the component for visual inspection.