GE Aerospace and nondestructive testing specialist Waygate Technologies showcased a new engine borescope inspection tool at MRO Americas that aims to help MRO inspectors achieve more consistent, quality results when inspecting GEnx-1B and -2B engines.
The Menu Directed Inspection templates embed guided workflows and artificial intelligence (AI) assistance onto the screen of Waygate’s Mentor Visual iQ+ video borescope during an inspection of high-pressure turbine blades. This includes recommendations for the correct view and borescope tip, and image overlays of how inspectors should position blades.
“Inspectors in the industry have a hard time capturing consistent imagery. You get variations from one inspection to the other,” says Dean Rheaume, North American sales director for Waygate’s visual business. He notes that this is due to people’s differing opinions on how to perform inspections and the learning curve associated with new engines and new inspectors.
This “leads to a lot of variability, and when you have that variability, you have the potential to miss things or find things you're not supposed to find, leading to premature engine removals . . . lower availability of engines and aircraft, and in the worst case, leading to missing things and having negative quality events,” he adds.
As companies begin to collect consistent data from these borescope inspections, Rheaume says it will enable trend analysis for better analytics-based maintenance offerings.
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