non-destructive testing
“NDT is used in nearly every
manufacturing and engineering process
to inspect parts, welds, and structures”
Why does compliance matter?’ Here’s an
example of what happens when you have a
lamp that’s marketed as compliant but is
not. You have a lamp, and you’re looking
for a flaw in a part of an airplane. Your
lamp is advertised to peak at 365
nanometers, but it peaks at 385. It will not
correctly find the flaw you would need to
ensure the stability and safety of an
airplane. One would think everything is
fine, and the airplane can move along its
charted flight. Your passengers and airline
staff are on board, and the flight takes off.
While you are airborne, the flaw in the
airplane increases in size, and there is a
malfunction. The result is worse than the
‘gremlin on the wing’ scenario we have
seen on a famous television series. This is a
real-life scenario that could have been
avoided if the manufacturer had been
honest on the compliance of their product
to find flaws in an airplane.
Public trust, product safety, and
satisfying requirements (specific design
requirements, physical proportions, etc.)
are important factors in regard to
compliance testing. A manufacturer who
works as an importer is responsible for
ensuring that all products placed on
the market are safe, assessing all usage
and safety aspects when developing
new products.
ASTM E3022 and RRES 90061 are
intended to be referenced only by the
manufacturer to certify the performance of
specific lamp models (housing, filter,
diodes, electronic circuit design, optical
elements, cooling system, and power
supply combination) and also includes
limited acceptance tests for individual
lamps delivered to the user. These test
procedures are not intended to be utilized
by the end user.
PERFORMANCE ISSUES
The performance of a compliant NDT lamp
is certified with rigorous manufacturer
testing and recorded on a fully serialized
certificate. This document shows that the
lamp has met all of the following
requirements before it is shipped. Tests for
compliance include running an intensity
profile (which involves the recording of the
peak intensity of a lamp at microwatts per
square centimeter from a distance, and the
each lamp. One major area of importance
to note in regards to ASTM and RRES is
that all lamps which are RRES-compliant
meet ASTM test values by default, but not
all ASTM-compliant lamps meet RRES
standards. When finding a flaw using
compliant lamps, it is important to use a
product that was tested at the standard
required to find said flaw.
FINDING FLAWS
Reading all of this information, one would
probably ask ‘why does it matter how many
nanometers a lamp needs to find flaws?
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