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Development Trends, Opportunities, and Policy Environment of the Industrial Nondestructive Testing Industry
Release Date:
2022/06/30
Industrial nondestructive testing employs methods such as ultrasonic, radiographic, electromagnetic, and penetrant testing to evaluate the condition of inspected objects—such as their compliance with specifications or remaining service life—without causing damage or compromising their functional performance. It is an indispensable inspection technique for ensuring product quality. Ultrasonic nondestructive testing offers advantages such as portable equipment, simple operation, and highly accurate results, positioning it as the fastest-growing method in the nondestructive testing market.
China is a major global manufacturer of machinery and a leading player in industrial nondestructive testing. With the state’s increasing emphasis on product and equipment quality as well as workplace and public safety, demand for industrial nondestructive testing equipment in China is expected to continue rising in the future.
Meanwhile, with the launch and ongoing implementation of the Belt and Road Initiative, infrastructure development—including transportation—along the Belt and Road countries is steadily expanding, which is expected to drive further growth in the international nondestructive testing equipment market.
I. Major Development Trends in the Nondestructive Testing Industry
Modern manufacturing is confronted with “four highs”—high temperature, high pressure, high stress, and high speed—resulting in increasingly stringent requirements for both workpieces and equipment. Looking ahead, industrial nondestructive testing (NDT) equipment will continue to evolve in several key directions: growing demand for specialized NDT instruments; enhanced automation; the integration of ultrasonic imaging with information technology; and the convergence of multimodal inspection techniques—thereby fostering the healthy and rapid development of modern manufacturing.
1. The demand for specialized testing equipment continues to grow.
Industrial nondestructive testing equipment is widely used; in different application fields, the inherent material properties of the test object, the location and severity of material defects, as well as the object’s external shape and operating environment, all vary.
Meanwhile, as ultrasonic phased-array equipment becomes increasingly widespread, inspection methods for complex components and defect evaluation techniques have grown more specialized, while industry standards and inspection procedures for nondestructive testing have become increasingly diverse and sophisticated. Consequently, it is becoming ever more critical to provide customers with tailored, comprehensive, application-specific NDT solutions that integrate inspection equipment, transducers and wedges, scanning systems, and advanced analysis and measurement software.
In the future, nondestructive testing equipment will gradually shift from general-purpose systems toward specialized solutions that meet the diverse inspection needs of various industries.
2. Increased automation of testing equipment
Industrial nondestructive testing is conducted in harsh working environments, requiring personnel to perform inspections at high altitudes or in settings containing toxic and hazardous substances, as well as flammable and explosive materials. Currently, most inspection operations are carried out manually, which leads to low inspection efficiency, poor repeatability, reduced worker safety, and high physical workload.
In certain fixed settings, such as manufacturers of steel plates, pipes, and billets, online automated inspection equipment has been widely adopted to replace manual inspection, significantly enhancing both inspection efficiency and quality. Consequently, the substitution of manual inspection with automated inspection systems represents a key development trend in the industrial nondestructive testing industry.
3. Integration of ultrasonic imaging-based inspection technology with information technology and intelligent systems
Ultrasonic phased-array and total-focusing techniques employ multi-element transducers for both ultrasonic wave transmission and reception, offering controllable beam angles, full-matrix data acquisition, and dynamic focusing. These capabilities enable imaging-based, high-speed, omnidirectional inspection of internal defects in complex structural components.
The Internet of Things, cloud computing, and artificial intelligence represent key trends in the evolution of information technology. By integrating 4G/5G and other communication technologies, devices can transmit real-time data on their status and sensed information to cloud servers, enabling efficient, comprehensive, and accurate support for assessing the condition and development trends of the objects they manage.
The integration of ultrasonic imaging inspection technology with information and intelligent technologies represents a major trend in the development of ultrasonic nondestructive testing.
4. Multimodal Detection Technology Fusion
In the field of industrial nondestructive testing, different inspection techniques each have their own advantages and limitations. For example, radiographic testing exhibits high sensitivity to volumetric defects within materials, while ultrasonic testing is highly sensitive to planar defects. Consequently, multiple inspection techniques are typically employed in combination during testing.
Integrating multiple nondestructive testing techniques within a single inspection system and conducting comprehensive analysis and evaluation of the results from each technique can effectively enhance both the accuracy and efficiency of inspections. Multi-modal fusion inspection, in which the strengths of various techniques complement one another, represents a key technological trend for the future of the nondestructive testing industry.
II. Opportunities in the Nondestructive Testing Industry
1. The sustained development of the national economy and strong support from industrial policies
In May 2015, China released “Made in China 2025,” which explicitly states: “Support joint research efforts involving government, industry, academia, research institutions, and end-users to develop intelligent products and independently controllable smart devices and bring them to industrial application”; and “Organize and implement a number of innovation and industrialization projects and major engineering initiatives, including large aircraft, aero-engines and gas turbines, civil space applications, intelligent green trains, energy-efficient and new-energy vehicles, marine engineering equipment and high-tech vessels, complete sets of smart grid equipment, high-end CNC machine tools, nuclear power equipment, and high-end medical diagnostic and treatment equipment.”
The metallic, nonmetallic, and composite materials used in the aforementioned key products and major equipment must be subjected to nondestructive testing during manufacturing, welding, or under severe service conditions to detect internal defects, thereby preventing catastrophic accidents, loss of life, and property damage resulting from equipment failure.
According to the “Roadmap for the Development of Nondestructive Testing” compiled by the Chinese Society of Mechanical Engineering, the value-added generated in various industries following the implementation of nondestructive testing is approximately 5% for mechanical products, 12%–18% for defense, aerospace, and nuclear-energy-related products, and about 20% for rockets. Therefore, with the comprehensive development of China’s aerospace engineering, marine engineering, nuclear energy and nuclear industry, high-speed rail, and other defense-industrial and high-tech sectors, nondestructive testing technology will serve as a robust enabler for the advancement of diverse manufacturing industries and cutting-edge technologies.
2. Acceleration of the import substitution process
According to the “Roadmap for the Development of Nondestructive Testing” compiled by the Chinese Society of Mechanical Engineering, the value-added generated in various industries following the implementation of nondestructive testing is approximately 5% for mechanical products, 12%–18% for defense, aerospace, and nuclear-energy-related products, and about 20% for rockets. Therefore, with the comprehensive development of China’s aerospace engineering, marine engineering, nuclear energy and nuclear industry, high-speed rail, and other defense-industrial and high-tech sectors, nondestructive testing technology will serve as a robust enabler for the advancement of diverse manufacturing industries and cutting-edge technologies.
Although high-end NDT products in China are currently dominated by imported firms, ongoing advancements by domestic companies in fundamental NDT theory research, technological development, and instrument design and R&D—coupled with the government’s increasing emphasis on achieving independent control over critical instrumentation and equipment—are poised to drive gradual import substitution, making it one of the key market trends for the domestic NDT industry in the years ahead.
III. Sound Environmental Policies
The “14th Five-Year Plan for the Development of Intelligent Manufacturing” calls for the research and development of intelligent inspection equipment and instruments, including digital non-contact precision measurement systems, online non-destructive testing devices, and laser tracking measurement systems.
The Outline of the 14th Five-Year Plan for National Economic and Social Development and the Long-Range Objectives for 2035 emphasizes focusing on strategic emerging industries such as next-generation information technology, biotechnology, new energy, new materials, high-end equipment, new-energy vehicles, green and environmentally friendly technologies, as well as aerospace and marine equipment; accelerating the innovation and application of critical core technologies; strengthening capacity to secure essential production factors; and fostering and expanding new drivers of industrial development.
With the issuance of national policies that encourage the development of new infrastructure and the upgrading of manufacturing to higher-end segments, the continuous emergence of new materials, novel structures, and advanced processes will drive growing demand for industrial nondestructive testing equipment, thereby spurring ongoing technological innovation within the industry.
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