Multi-Method END Study in the Search for 'Defects' in an Aeronautical Radar Element

Abstract

Non-Destructive Testing (NDT) has gone from being a simple laboratory curiosity to an indispensable tool in the industry to determine the level of quality achieved in its products. The new concepts of Integrated Manufacturing (CIM) bring a more universal concept of quality compared to the past philosophy based on Quality Control as a group specialized in checking whether production works within certain specifications. Even so, NDTs have not lost interest, but have seen their interest increased due to automated inspection techniques. It has become a contribution to the structuring of quality as it allows to move from purely empirical criteria to other more objective and that constitute the link between design and evaluation (Ramirez et al, 1996).
 The work presented, although it does not propose new methods or techniques of NDT, has the interest of converging into a single object five conventional methods each of which provides partial information about their quality of manufacture and must synthesize the results in order to evaluate it. Furthermore, it shows a situation of the application of NDT in which these must be applied in the absence of reference standards, as they do not exist. This peculiar situation is completely different from the usual situation in the use of NDT in the industry, both in manufacturing processes and in maintenance inspections.