Airbus subsidiary Testia has upgraded its Smart UE1 inspection tool, which it calls “the Swiss-army knife of every non-destructive testing inspector,” with an assortment of new capabilities. The new features have been launched at Joramco through a collaboration between the two companies, in which the Jordanian MRO has served as a beta tester.

The wireless Smart UE1 device already offers ultrasonic and eddy current testing, as well as an assortment of other modules to detect various types of defects and measurements such as delamination, disbonding, fatigue cracks, lack of cladding, thickness, coatings and conductivity. Now, Testia has added a variety of new capabilities to increase the efficiency of inspections. These include an extended frequency range for eddy current inspections and a new interface for its CladTool that it says is simpler and provides step-by-step guidance for NDT personnel and mechanics to interpret inspection results. Its thickness gauge functionality has also been upgraded with a new grid mapping feature that Testia says allows users to focus on the signal and probe rather than on writing numbers.

“We designed this tool as a combo, in order to give to the inspectors all they need at their fingertips,” says Guillaume Ithurralde, chief technical officer, Testia. “The kit is customizable according to the customer’s wishes, and a full configuration would replace at least three other investments on the customer-end.”

According to Joramco, which has been using the Smart UE1 since mid-2019 for ultrasonic, eddy current, rototest and cladding inspections, it has saved significant preparation and reporting time by combining all of the inspection applications within one Windows-based kit. Its collaboration on the Smart UE1 follows an MoU signed at MRO Europe last year for the acquisition of smart inspection tools to boost the MRO’s operations and efficiency.  

Testia says the new features are already being offered as an upgrade to existing customers and it will start deploying them to all new clients. The features are included as standard on new Smart UE1 devices and customers can reach out to Testia to upgrade their instrument.