NONDESTRUCTIVE EVALUATION (NDE) DATA CORRELATION FOR MANUFACTURING IMPROVEMENT

摘要

Nondestructive evaluation (NDE) is often considered to be strictly a quality assurance tool, used exclusively as a mechanism for acceptance or rejection of parts. NDE processes may be viewed as having a negative cost impact to any program, due to rejections that may result in repairs, scrap, and additional labor and documentation. However, NDE can also be a valuable engineering tool for process improvement if the data are utilized for correlation to manufacturing parameters and events. This can result in a positive cost advantage to the program by avoiding future rejections. Under the RApid High-Performance Molding (RAPM) for Small Parts program, a variety of different composite part configurations were manufactured utilizing fabrication processes that were geared toward automotive applications. Ultrasonic and radiographic NDE were performed on these parts to understand the general output of the chosen manufacturing processes. This paper will show how correlation of the NDE data to destructive analysis led to refinement of manufacturing parameters and, for the resin infusion challenge part, showed the path to implementation for an existing aerospace program.