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July, 2021


The Perfect Time to Migrate from Film to Digital Radioscopy


By Dirk Steiner, Business Development Manager, Yxlon T


he aerospace industry has suffered a colossal blow as a result of the coron- avirus pandemic. The sudden decrease


in air travel impacted revenue of new aircraft sales, as well as replacement parts. Many aerospace companies have been


forced to focus on cost savings that include workforce reductions, coupled with achieving automation improvement to make scal- ing up easier when business rebounds. The silver lining to this cloud is that


it presents an opportunity to take advan- tage of the financial and economic bene- fits that converting to an industrial digi- tal radioscopy X-ray system from the old film technology provides.


X-Ray in Aerospace Manufacturing Film technology came into use dur-


ing WWI for industrial X-ray, and is still being used today in a variety of indus- tries that produce metal cast parts. Most aerospace components must be inspected not only externally, but also non-destruc- tively by X-ray internally to ensure safe- ty, quality and end-use performance, as well as to meet all applicable industry standards. For companies producing parts for


this and other critical industries, inspec- tion and documentation of inspection, are an integral part of serving their cus- tomers. Aerospace equipment still depends largely on the same types of cast parts that have been used for 30 to 40 years. The major- ity have been inspected using film X-ray equipment. However, film-based X-ray inspection is


no longer the most efficient method. It is labor intensive, carries environmental risks and takes a lot of time to process and com- plete single-part inspections — cycle times ranging up to three hours. With labor reduc- tions and demand slowdowns, now is the per- fect time to change technologies and migrate from film to digital inspection systems. After having proved the ROI and all the benefits of this move, this critical time can ease the transition and be put in place before produc- tion in the industry scales back up.


The alternative to the dark room: digital radioscopy with Yxlon’s UX20.


image. DR significantly reduces cycle times, where a film X-ray system would take between one and three hours to inspect a sin- gle part, a DR system can complete inspec- tion on the same part in approximately 15 minutes. DR systems do require operator train-


ing, but they can produce results immediate- ly. The immediate results from DR inspection are digital and easier to read than film results. DR scans do not require backlit film readers that can be straining on the eyes of the radiographer. They also do not have to be stored as


hard copies that require climate-controlled warehousing for the physical films, rather they can be stored and tracked digitally on company servers. There are many areas where companies


Digital Radioscopy vs. Film X-Ray Digital radioscopy (DR) takes digital X-


ray images from all different angles and stores them on a drive in a matter of seconds. DR makes one-time loading possible and offers automatic positioning for parts. This eliminates the time for film loading, as well as the need to reposition parts for each


see returns from investing in DR inspection, including time savings, labor savings, elimi- nation of material costs for film, chemicals and disposal, and increased production effi- ciency. Time savings are arguably the most


important factor that impact other areas of return on investment. With DR, images can be reviewed, shared and re-shot almost immediately. Wait times for the development process and reload- ing film are no longer necessary. More complex parts may require 10 X-ray images to be taken, while smaller, simpler parts may only require a sin- gle image. The typical range of time


Where film X-ray takes


hours to inspect a single part, a DR system can complete inspection on the same part in around 15 minutes.


with film technology for collecting those images is 1-3 hours. Due to the automation and digital


factors of DR systems, scan times are drastically decreased, by up to 90 per-


cent. This requires less labor while increasing the total number of parts a system can scan. For companies with


several inspection systems, this can lead to a reduction in the total number of systems, while continuing to provide the ability to keep inspections in sync with production. PCC Structurals, a leader in superalloys,


aluminum and titanium casting, experienced a very favorable ROI by converting from film X-ray to an Yxlon DR system. “You can shoot the product much quicker. We had around a 75 percent reduction in time than with con- ventional film,” says Tyler Deschaine, NDT engineering manager at PCC.


Labor and Training As less labor is needed to change out


films, repositioning parts per image and read images, fewer people are needed per cycle. Automated techniques incorporated into DR


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