Weld testing in the fabrication of large-diameter pipes

Fully automatic radiographic testing of cast light metal components is a state of the art technology. The contribution describes its application in weld testing. A new method for evaluating X-rays of welds is presented which were tested using an innovative X-ray camera with maximum spatial resolution and a wide range of grey values. Further, a novel concept for handling test objects significantly shortens testing times. The pipes are not moved longitudinally; instead, the longitudinal motion is made by the X-ray emitter and sensor, which reduces the testing time by up to 30 percent. The specially developed X-ray detector has a sensitive surface of 200 mm x 50 mm with a total of 4.2 million pixels. Neither the evaluation electronics nor the light-sensitive camera chip are exposed to the direct X-radiation so that no damage will occur at photoenergies up to at least 250 keV. Many tests, e.g. according to EN 13068 and EN 462-5, have shown that the image quality in general and especially the local resolution exceeds the specifications of the EN 584 standard on weld testing with X-ray films. The pictures taken by the camera serve as input data for fully automatic evaluation. All stages of image processing implement 16-bit digitalisation depth in order to make use of the high dynamic range of gray value images. This means that in the whole processing chain, there will be no loss of information from downscaling of the gray values. In the first stage of image processing, the gray values are transformed into penetrated material thicknesses in preparation of the measurement of fault length in the direction of incidence at a later stage. In the next stage, external boundaries and the middle of the weld are detected, followed by an adaptive filtering stage. Additionally, information on the accurate location of the weld is transmitted to the control system of the mechanical parts, so that optimum positioning of the weld with respect to the camera is ensured. The adaptive filter can detect defects like cavities, cracks or inclusions. Finally, the characteristics of the detected defects are compared with the specifications of the quality standards. The results, together with the original image data of the pipe, are archived electronically and stored falisfication-proof on DVD. (orig.)