A flaw penetrant test panel having a sheet metal surface in which are impressed tiny or microscopic flaw simulating cavities distributed over the test surface to receive one or more penetrants being tested, the mouth size of the cavities being in the range of about 1 to 10 thousandth inch and being formed by heating the metal to incipient softening temperature followed by penetration of the surface test area using a needle-like tool proportioned to the desired cavity size and depth and which upon penetration of the metal displaces it in a crater-like rim about the cavity being formed.
A test panel for use in evaluating fluorescent penetrants and being composed of a spring steel substrate having surfaces coated with a thin electroless nickel plating capable of producing stress induced microcracks in the plated surfaces.
A test specimen has a carefully controlled series of cracks on its surface and is useful for evaluating surface penetrants employed in non-destructive inspection. A flat brass substrate has a nickel electroplating on one surface, which plating varies in thickness along the length of the panel. The opposing side of the panel has a multiplicity of grooves which locally concentrate strain in the plating when the panel is bent during manufacture, thus providing a crack associated with each groove. In a preferred embodiment, the texture of the cracked surface varies across the panel in the same direction in which the cracks run, thus enabling evaluation of the usefulness of penetrants in finding different size cracks under different surface finish conditions.
A test panel and process of preparing a test panel for evaluating the performance of inspection penetrants by inducing cracks into a brittle coating. The process includes drilling one or more holes from the back side of a test plate which has been plated on a plated side. The holes are drilled partway through the test plate and create cavities. A penetrating tool which has a point is inserted into a cavity and the point is pressed in a slow measured manner from the back side of the panel which has a brittle plated coating on the front side to be cracked. The result is a series of cracks formed in an area opposite the area of the cavity.
A test panel and process of preparing a test panel for evaluating the performance of inspection penetrants by inducing cracks into a brittle coating. The process utilizes a penetrating tool which has a point which is pressed in a slow measured manner into the back side of the panel which has a brittle coating on the front side to be cracked. The position of the pointed tool is carefully measured in increments of 0.05" or smaller. The tool is driven to a depth to obtain the desired crack size, depending on the brittle coating's characteristics.
