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12 July 2006

Joint Expertise For Power Station Outage Inspection

The comprehensive combined capabilities of Integrity NDT and NDT Inspection & Testing has recently been demonstrated to great effect in the successful shut-down inspection at the Deeside combined cycle gas turbine power station of International Power.

Integrity NDT, with offices in Chester and Northern France is a company with over 25 years experience of planning and managing power station outages. This involves preparing the initial inspection proposals, detailed pre-planning to establish all access and preparation requirements, managing the inspection itself and ensuring that electronic records are produced to aid in asset management.

The two-month shut-down inspection at Deeside involved the major items of power generating plant: the two gas turbines, the heat recovery steam generators and the steam turbine. Consequently, it was essential that the project was completed accurately and reliably within the allocated time. To help achieve this, Integrity NDT enlisted the help of NDT Inspection & Testing, of Queensferry, with whom they have built up a mature working alliance. The Queensferry NDT specialists were on site throughout the shut-down period and applied a range of inspection techniques including conventional ultrasonics for rapid flaw detection in welds, TOFD (time of flight diffraction) for accurate detection and sizing of flaws and magnetic particle inspection, eddy current and dye penetrant inspection for the detection of surface-breaking and sub-surface defects.

All NDT work was carried by multi-skilled, qualified operatives, ensuring that multi-modality inspections were carried out accurately and efficiently. Inspection data was produced in real time and reports were produced electronically, for off-line analysis and subsequent archiving.

By combining their complementary skills in a working alliance, Integrity NDT and NDT Inspection & Testing can manage and execute power station outages from pre-planning to close-out reports so that outage NDT is not only cost-effective and efficient but also makes a significant contribution to plant integrity and asset management.

NDT Inspecting & Testing is one of the UK's largest dedicated inspection service providers and believes in working closely with customers to understand and address their needs in a reliable, quality-compliant and cost efficient fashion by using the most appropriate technology to best effect. Its field services division offers a wide range of conventional inspection technology, including site radiography, supported by specialist techniques such as TOFD, remote field eddy current inspection, remote visual tube inspection and IRIS ultrasonic testing. The company also provides dedicated and qualified radiographic testing services to the aerospace sector and carries both Nadcap and UKAS accreditation at each of its three strategically located sites in the UK.

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Above: showing dye-penetrant inspection at the Deeside Power station