Dunkirk Specialty Steel LLC, a U.S. manufacturer of semi-finished and finished specialty steel products, installed a General Electric phased-array nondestructive testing (NDT) system as part of a $10 million capital investment from parent company Universal Stainless and Alloy Products. The company also installed a bar turn and burnish line as part of upgrades at its Dunkirk, N.Y., facility, which produces finished bar, rod and wire products in a variety of specialty steel grades. 

Tenaris will open a sucker-rods manufacturing facility in Conroe, Texas, in July. The $70 million investment is equipped with advanced technologies to optimize efficiencies and reduce production times. The facility includes heat-treatment, threading and finishing processes; nondestructive testing (NDT); robotized forging lines; and a state-of-the-art quality testing lab. The mill also has an on-site training facility and classroom.

Element opened a new 20,700-square-foot nondestructive testing and inspection laboratory in Sheffield, U.K. The facility complements the existing Magna Way laboratory, which offers sample heat-treatment capabilities, metallurgical testing and CNC machining facilities. Element has invested approximately $320,000 in equipment for immersion ultrasonic testing, dye penetrant inspection, eddy current inspection, magnetic particle inspection and on-site positive material identification.

Germany’s Zeiss broke ground on a site outside of Detroit, Mich., that will consolidate four existing Michigan facilities into one location and provide room for growth. It will contain a customer demonstration area with new technologies and systems; offer training, support and metrology services; and house fixture system production and assembly. Company specialists will be able to perform proof-of-capability demonstrations for multidimensional measurement equipment, surface form and geometry equipment, and nondestructive testing and surface defect detection equipment.

Improvements in steel manufacturing processes have yielded advancements in the purity of steel that, in turn, yield higher-quality end-use products.

The many variables associated with material type, sample geometry and in-service use of a part or component complicate the design and implementation of an appropriate fatigue testing regime.

Element Materials Technology (Element) acquired Cleveland, Ohio-based Orbit Industries Inc. (Orbit), a Nadcap- and ISO 17025-accredited laboratory and provider of nondestructive testing (NDT) services to aerospace primes and Tier 1 suppliers. With over 30 prime approvals, Orbit specializes in ultrasonic, liquid penetrant, magnetic particle and chemical processing for raw materials and semi-finished and finished products, including landing-gear components, airfoils and aluminum wheels. Orbit also operates out of four other satellite inspection facilities across Ohio, Pennsylvania and New York.

Solar Atmospheres of Western PA continued its merit status for Nadcap Nondestructive Testing for penetrant inspection. Solar Atmospheres specializes in Method A (water washable) Fluorescent Penetrant inspection and is able to accommodate parts of varying sizes in their NDT cell. The company has its own in-house Level 3 inspector as well as six Level 2 inspectors and one Level 1 inspector. Solar Atmospheres is on Boeing’s approved supplier list and typically inspects three linear miles of vacuum stress-relieved weldments for the 787 Dreamliner per month.