GE is bringing new things to NDT customers

GE Aircraft Engines recently bought Agfa-Gevaert Non-DestructiveTesting, although it already owns a viable NDT business. As part of the deal GE sold its Panametrics NDT Product Group.

"What Agfa brings to us is really three-fold," explained Jeff Nagel, president, GE Inspection Technologies. "The first is their broad line of products. The second is that they have the best distribution network in the business.

"Before we acquired Agfa we were really fighting for airtime with potential customers," he continued. "There were times that we would learn about a bid months afterwards. Now from our base in H�rth, Germany, we will have over 1,000 employees located in 25 countries dedicated to NDT opportunities."

The third, and possibly biggest, benefit of the Agfa acquisition is its engineering and manufacturing expertise. "Now when we want to take one of the developments from our Medical Systems group or our Global Research Center to market, we have the capability to make it a truly industrial product," Nagel said. "It's a platform we can use to grow our NDT business faster than we could have on our own."

Nagel also explained that as part of the Agfa purchase, GE had to sell its Panametrics NDT Product Group. The company and its facilities were purchased by R/D Tech earlier this year.

New capabilities that GE Inspection Technologies will bring to the market include similar technologies and capabilities that doctors and hospitals put to use inspecting patients every day.

Nagel explained that one technology transfer that is scoring immediate success is the use of real-time digital X-rays to inspect airframes. "With real-time X-ray, you can scan the wing and when you see an area that looks a little suspect you can shoot the picture," he said. "It's a great first-step technology. Once a suspicious area is inspected with digital X-ray, the technicians can shoot an image with film to get greater detail and accuracy. They are complementary capabilities that together will make inspections faster and much more accurate."

Nagel said that while these new inspection tools are great on their own, GE's goal is to introduce ways to fuse all of the combined findings into one central databank. "When you get into solving tougher problems, the ability to fuse a lot of information and bring it together so a technician can see all the pieces at one time will be incredibly beneficial," he said. "Today that fusion takes place in the mind of the technician, leaving room for interpretation. When we can deliver it all in a digital format, a technician will be able to pin down exactly what is happening and where.

"Once we get it all worked out, we want to share those best ideas and capabilities with everyone in the business. I want to sell it to Rolls-Royce, Pratt & Whitney, Boeing, Airbus and anyone else who can benefit from it," he continued."Once we can embed that thinking into the box and the people who will use it, we can truly achieve great things. It will take a lot of work to bring it together, but we are all committed to do it."