X-Ray System For Inspecting Space Shuttle Wing

Lockheed Martin, Dallas, Texas has issued a purchase order to Envision Product Design of Anchorage, Alaska for a digital X-ray system for use in inspecting the leading edge of the space shuttle wing.

Lockheed Martin Corporation in Dallas, Texas has issued a purchase order to Envision Product Design of Anchorage, Alaska for a digital X-ray system for use in inspecting the leading edge of the space shuttle wing.

To meet the requirements of this order, Envision will provide the highest resolution and largest format 3D X-ray imaging system ever built.

This system will be an adaptation of Envision's CMOS high-energy X-ray imaging technology and advancements made in reconstructing 3D volumetric images from 2D data.

After months of work, NASA's Columbia Accident Investigation Board (CAIB) released a series of recommendations including the increased use of nondestructive testing (NDT) and the development of new NDT technologies.

Lockheed Martin, manufacturer of the composite structures that make up the shuttle wing, is now implementing the CAIB's directive R3.3-1 to "Develop and implement a comprehensive inspection plan to determine the structural integrity of all reinforced carbon-carbon system components.

This inspection plan should take advantage of advanced nondestructive inspection technology." Envision began development work on digital X-ray systems for use in the Alaskan oil industry in 1993.

Since that time the company has produced a series of advanced inspection systems for companies and government organizations around the world including Boeing, Westinghouse, Honeywell, Goodrich Aerospace, Applied Aerospace Structures, American Ordnance, Michelin, Goodyear, Argonne National Lab, NASA, U.S.

Army, U.S.

Navy, Korean Electric Power Research Institute, and others.

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