A new fully digital system for RT inspection of metal tube to tube sheet joints of heat exchangers

摘要

A completely novel device was developed for RT inspection of weldments for tube to tube sheet joints on heat exchangers applied in chemical industry. It replaces the Gammamat B3 unit containing an Ir 192 isotope as radiation source and a punched NDT film (system class C3 acc. to EN 584) as detector to allow the one-sided access for inspection. In a first step a special X-ray tube with a rod anode was developed by rtw Rontgentechnik to replace the Ir 192 isotope source to achieve a better inspection sensitivity at 130 kV for thin walled tubes and tube sheets. A new specialized, direct converting detector based on CdTe was designed by Ajat Oy, Finland. Together with the X-ray source a handsome unit was designed with 4 detector tiles arranged around the rod anode, which passes though the detector plane. The handling of this novel inspection unit as well as the computer based image acquisition reduces the expense for this RT inspection considerably. All problems with film chemistry and isotope transportation are avoided. The computer based evaluation of the digital radiographs and the direct connection to the inspection data base of the complete heat exchanger create significant advantages for inspection planning and documentation. First experiences are reported on application of this new technique in the field.