Kongsberg Reduces X-ray Inspection Time by Ninety Percent

Norway’s premier supplier of defense and aerospace-related systems and solutions, Kongsberg Defence & Aerospace, changed its industrial X-ray inspection from film to digital radiology with the help of VCxray by VisiConsult. The client was surprised by VisiConsult’s velocity during production and installation of a digital X-ray system, but was even more amazed about how fast they received final customer approval and NADCAP certification.

The whole project was executed rapidly, and resulted in significant quality and performance gains in the NDT process. After making the effort to measure the improvements, it is possible to draw some powerful conclusions about the impact of migrating to digital X-ray inspection – because until then, all Kongsberg test parts have been inspected using analog X-ray technology. Jan Danielsson, NDT Specialist at Kongsberg says: “90% of our inspection parts are now inspected digitally with the XRHGantry, which has enabled us to reduce our working time by 90%. We determined that the new throughput would have required 12 additional quality inspectors if we had retained X-ray film entirely.”

The digital XRHGantry was ordered in early 2016 and delivered and installed in August 2016. Just eight weeks later, Kongsberg received approval from their customers. “We typically expect approvals from customers after eight months.” And just one year later, Kongsberg received the NADCAP certification for in-house digital radiology.

In addition to the flexibility and accuracy of the XRHGantry, Kongsberg also appreciates VCxray’s expertise in both analog and digital X-ray technology within the aerospace industry. The customer also received a convincing impression from VCxray’s professional team.

Jan Danielson summarizes: “The digital XRHGantry is a high-quality system and its possibilities are perfectly suited for our products and demands. The DR system continues to give us high value for the investment. The biggest surprise was the 90% reduction of working hours.”

In the aerospace sector, Digital Radiography has a huge potential to increase quality and efficiency.