Warbird Information Exchange

Hi, I need to pick someone's brains. We have the need to look for corrosion among metal components in several our our restorations at Gatineau.

I'm looking for some new development in the field of remote sensing. NOT X-rays. Ideally we'd like to look through one piece of metal, and see the surface of another, behind it, where there is no other access, and where disassembly is hideously expensive.

Does anything like this exist? Some recent innovation?

Looking for something out of the box here...

Thanks,

Dave

The only things you might be able to do is ultrasonics or eddy current, both old-school, but you'd need tight contact between any layers of metal I think.

Other than that, I think you're stuck with borescope. Not sure x-ray would be good anyhow unless you can put the film close to the backside of the part.

Why don't you want to do x-ray?

Thanks, BDK.

We've been told we can't X-RAY with any value in a particular situation we need -- nested aluminum channels. We consulted experts in the field, and said they'd be wasting our money. The X-rays won't penetrate the outer layers of metal.

Dave

Is it the part itself that is expensive/difficult to remove from the airplane or is the part free from the airplane but unreasonably expensive to disassemble? If free from the airplane, how big a part is it?

John

Nested metal parts installed in an aeroplane, with a VERY expensive price for dis-assembly.

But thanks for thinking of us.

BDK was kind enough to do some investigating on our behalf -- much obliged! -- with a large aeronautical firm, but no luck.

Dave

The only way xrays won't penetrate is if its lead. All it takes is enough power.

The other option is a very small hole and a small video bore scope. There is infrared but that really wouldn't work on the same temperature materials. I'm sure there are some more advanced things we don't know about that could do it.