Boss of Aberdeen’s Sonomatic invited to talk to US Navy in Pearl Harbour about Non Destructive Evaluation

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Sonomatic general manager John Lilley is heading for Honolulu this week to take part in a prestigious US Navy workshop.

Mr Lilley will address naval experts about the use of ultrasonic non-destructive evaluation (NDE) in piping inspections. The event takes place at a US Naval facility in Pearl Harbour on 23rd & 24th April.

He said: “Sonomatic is a world leader in advanced ultrasonic NDE, and I have been invited to outline how this technology can be applied in this context. 

“When high pressure piping is installed, the fabrication code requires that the welds are subject to 100% radiographic inspection often these pipes are quite thick and high-energy radiation sources have to be used. This is obviously potentially hazardous and also very time-consuming and costly as the test areas have to be cleared.
“There is however a code case within the relevant piping code which allows ultrasonic testing to be used instead of radiography and at Sonomatic we have extensive experience in this field.”

The relevant code is the American Society for Mechanical Engineers’ Code for Pressure Piping B31.3. 

Mr Lilley has prepared a technical brief which will be the focus of his address. “Our aim is to work with the US Navy in a technical support role as the ultrasonic NDE approach is developed for use across the fleet,” he said.

He has worked with, and advised the US Navy before, helping develop techniques for the inspection of nuclear submarine propeller tail shafts.