Airbus Helicopters: Modernization of the quality assurance through digital radiography

Safety relevant parts in the aerospace industry need to be tested with X-ray technology. VisiConsult X-ray Systems & Solutions GmbH is the leading supplier for customized systems and solutions in digital X-ray testing and has successfully upgraded the old and analog X-ray system for rotor blades of Airbus Helicopters to modern digital radiography.

In times of lighter materials and higher pressures in the aerospace industry, the quality assurance is of increased importance. Only a comprehensive inspection guarantees that the parts can withstand the high requirements. Of course, the leading manufacturer of civil and military helicopters Airbus Helicopters from Donauwörth in Southern Germany performs a complete X-ray inspection of their production parts. In the past, this has been done with an analog imaging technique, a so-called image intensifier. As the X-ray inspection is a mandatory inspection step at the end of the production chain, a high system availability is necessary. A system failure would inevitably lead to a disruption in the process and directly impacts the production output. The old system could not guarantee this availability anymore and an alternative had to be found within a very short timeframe. Another demand was to modernize the process through digitization, which could be achieved through Digital Radiography (DR). The advantages of this technology are an easier certification, a simplified result-archiving and a clearly improved image quality.

After thec investigation of several suppliers and solutions, VisiConsult was able to prevail with a new development against the competition: The specially developed HDMI image intensifier combines the advantages of a digital detector array (DDA) with those of an analog technique. Only with this technique the X-ray inspectors could test e.g. the honeycomb structure of special rotor blades in motion without artefacts. The flexibility of VisiConsult to react to special customer wishes and to find new ways led to this big project success within shortest time. Beside the aerospace industry, VisiConsult is also represented in a number of further industries, like foundries, pipe mills, automotive manufacturers etc. The innovative systems provide highest inspection quality as well as a high degree of automatization, which helps customers to decrease costs.