Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering Develops Industry-First Digital Technology for Non-Destructive Testing

[Asia Economy Reporter Park Soyeon] Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering (DSME) has succeeded in developing the world's first radiographic test (RT) technology integrated with digital technology in the global shipbuilding industry. This advancement is expected to significantly enhance quality reliability, improve productivity, and simultaneously ensure safety.

On the 24th, DSME announced that it has successfully developed an AI-based digital RT inspection technology and a robot that can automatically perform quality inspections of welds, which are essential in ship and offshore plant construction.

The technology developed by DSME integrates digital technology into conventional RT inspections, which is anticipated to contribute to revolutionary work improvements such as increased operational efficiency and reduced radiation exposure risks.

This technology accurately identifies the location of welds on various shapes of ship and offshore plant structures through 3D modeling, collects nondestructive testing information based on artificial intelligence (AI) technology, automatically performs weld quality inspections, and stores the accumulated data in an integrated management platform.

In the medical field, digital technology has already been adopted in radiographic examinations such as X-ray imaging, improving inspection efficiency by reducing radiation exposure. However, until now, all shipbuilding companies have applied analog RT inspection technology using film to determine the presence of defects in welds necessary for ship and offshore plant construction.

When using film, the operational range is narrow, requiring multiple imaging processes to capture a single weld area, and personnel were involved in several stages such as equipment installation/removal and film installation/removal. With this new technology development, personnel are only required during equipment installation and removal.

Additionally, since film development and other processes were necessary to confirm inspection results, it used to take a full day. Now, real-time confirmation is possible, drastically reducing work time and radiation exposure time, which is expected to greatly contribute to productivity improvement and safety assurance.

Choi Dong-gyu, Executive Vice President and Head of Central Research Institute at DSME, stated, "The newly developed technology can be widely applied in ship and offshore plant construction, and it is expected to significantly contribute not only to productivity improvement but also to safety." He added, "We will continue to devote ourselves to technological development to elevate DSME's technological capabilities and quality standards to a higher level."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.