There is a plethora of possible technologies which can be used for non destructive testing, offering all sorts of low-cost, convenient and effective ways of monitoring and inspecting products, materials and constructions. Dr. Casper Wassink, an expert in non destructive testing with nearly two decades of experience, has identified dozens of those technologies in his thesis ‘Innovation in Non Destructive Testing.’ But he also emphasizes that the pace is very slow, in which these new technologies are developed, adapted and employed in the field of non destructive testing.
Dr. Casper Wassink worked for RTD, now Applus RTD (a multinational service provider and innovator in non destructive testing with around 7000 employees), for 17 years. He held such positions as business development engineer, chief scientist and manager of the research and development department.
He is also on the board of directors of Kint (http://www.kint.nl), the Dutch society for quality supervision in inspection and non destructive testing. There he is currently working on a project for simulating and modeling inspection methods for the purpose of validating its reliability. ‘We are confronted with all the themes laid out in my theses,’ he says. ‘Innovation turns out to be very difficult in the field of non destructive testing. There is hardly any progress. I regularly attend scientific conferences in this field and every time the amount of genuinely new techniques is extremely dismal. It is a very difficult area to get inventions implemented.’
This article appeared in the March/April issue of Reinforced Plastics.
