Welded joints and Materials testing
We conduct our own tests during production and the mandatory final inspections are always performed by an impartial testing institute.
Magnetic particle inspection
Magnetic particle inspection is the most commonly used method for detecting surface defects and near-surface defects such as hairline cracks in magnetisable iron and steel raw materials. The leakage flux that appears at surface cracks when the building component is magnetized means that the magnetisable particles in the testing material stick at the location. The effect is visible and results from the contrast between the background and the testing material.
Dye penetration
Dye penetration is one of the oldest non-destructive testing procedures for detecting surface defects and can be performed on almost any metallic and non-metallic material. During this process, the capillary action results in the test liquid penetrating any type of surface defect in the material. Following careful washing of the solution, a layer of developer is applied which creates a counter capillary action. This draws out the liquid which had penetrated into cavities and crack and makes the defects visible.
Ultrasound testing
Ultrasound testing is particularly useful for detecting internal and external defects in materials that conduct sound and is thereby able to find errors throughout the entire cross section of the component. The acoustic method for the non-destructive testing of the material is used for quality assurance in tubes, welded joints and cast parts as well as for determining wall thickness.
UPON REQUEST
Load testing
E.T.S. works closely and in partnership with major certification bodies. This means that new designs are often discussed in advance and the required safety features are jointly determined.
Testers are on our premises almost daily to monitor the construction of large lifting equipment as is necessary under the applicable standards or to oversee the obligatory load tests.
The requirements placed on lifting equipment for use offshore are enormous and, as a result, all lifting accessories and equipment used in this area have always been tested with loads exceeding their load-bearing capacities.
The intense and prolonged exposure to waves and wind and the overall difficult operating conditions place particular stress on the lifting equipment, meaning that tried-and-tested safety features are of the utmost importance.
Turbines, gas compressors and wind power plants are all extremely valuable. As such, damage during transportation must be avoided at all costs, as very long repair and replacement times would result in dramatic economic consequences.
Documentation and document management
The documentation is just as important as the manufactured product itself. In international steel construction and mechanical engineering, the materials used must be precisely documented. In fact, an undocumented component may lead to the entire piece of lifting equipment being rejected. Lifting equipment must therefore always be delivered with comprehensive documentation. The data and content must correspond to the current design of the lifting equipment and the documentation must include evidence of the quality of the components and materials used as well as details of the inspections carried out.
While templates can be used to create the documentation for simple standard constructions, complex customized solutions require their own amended set of operating instructions. To create these, documents from various sources must be compiled and the content is formatted by hand in the same way as documents for printing. The proofreading process takes place over multiple channels, such as email and telephone, making it hard to work and time-consuming.
However, we have made this process easier by generating, managing and archiving documentation semi-automatically and by organizing the workflow between the client and manufacturer. Content which is the part requiring editing, is prepared separately from the design of the document and is only laid out properly on the page once it has been exported to a PDF. The documents produced in this way are archived in the system and can be consulted and sent from the program.