Liquid Penetrant Testing (PT) is used to detect casting, forging and welding surface defects such as hairline cracks, surface porosity, leaks in new products, and fatigue cracks on in-service components. PT is a non-destructive examination method used to locate surface breaking discontinuities in non-porous materials (metals, plastics, or ceramics). This method may be applied to ferrous and non-ferrous materials, although for ferrous components magnetic-particle inspection is often used instead for its subsurface detection capability.
KAOTHEEM APPLIES PT TO INSPECT
- Welds and weld overlays, castings and forgings, valves and their components, machined parts, pressure vessels, clad vessel linings, and structural steel.
- New fabrication weld inspection
– Code compliant inspection
– ASME Section V for pressure vessels
– ASME B31.1 and B31.3 for piping
– API 1104 for pipelines
- In-service welds
- Ferrous and non-ferrous components
ADVANTAGES
- High visibility of indications
- Low cost and fast results
- Field Ready
– Highly portable tools can be used in most locations
– Can operate with battery power as well as supplied power when available
LIMITATIONS
- Can only detect surface flaws
- Conducting the test on rough surfaces, such as as-fabricated welds, will make it difficult to remove any excessive penetrant and could result in false indications
- Penetrants are limited by temperature and generally operate best in the range of 40 °F to 125 °F. Special procedure and penetrants can be used for temperatures outside this range but these must be qualified by a procedure test
- Test material must be relatively non-porous
