FAST UT is an innovative technology which has been patented by Rick Pfannenstiel owner of PfiNDE. It was developed to improve the reliability of ultrasonic inspection of welds in thin walled components at a nuclear power plant. Since then it has been further developed and refined to allow for reliable inspection of a variety of components, materials and thicknesses.

Deep Crack in .312T Pipe Long Seam

FAST is an innovative way to use a 70° longitudinal wave to do both detection and sizing of flaws. The most outstanding feature of FAST is the absence of confusing geometric reflections from features such as root beads, counterbores and backing rings. Licensing right to use FAST™ may be granted through arrangement with PfiNDE, LLC. Among other factors, training by PfiNDE is a key to this process.

FAST has been successfully applied to:

• Pipeline integrity examinations

• Thin wall weld inspection

• Thin wall crack detection and sizing

• SCC Sizing

• Thru wall sizing of planar flaws

• Boiler tube welds

• Heat exchanger tube welds

• PDI Qualified

• Single Side Access S/S Examinations

ID Crack in Long Seam - Flash Welded Pipe

New applications are being developed frequently to assist in the inspection of new welds. FAST UT has made inspection of thin-walled components feasible and reliable. Welds in boiler tubes, pharmaceutical piping, heat exchanger tubing are being inspected with excellent reliability.

With FAST, the entire volume of weld can be inspected in a single scan with a single transducer, much like a phased array or a multiple transducer system. This attribute allows for inexpensive and reliable inspection of pipeline welds. This has been demonstrated effective through a research grant from the American Gas Association Pipeline Research Council. 

Pipeline Integrity Examination

When FAST UT is automated the entire weld volume is examined in one scan. Flaw size information is obtained at the same time as detection. This attribute makes FAST UT much like TOFD. With FAST, there is no limitation on thin walled material and only one side of the weld is needed for scanning

Corrosion mapping can be tedious and time consuming. Pfinde works closely with engineering to determine what is needed rather than supply more data than is necessary.

Qualification Obtained is as follows:

• Detection and Length Sizing for Carbon Steel, Stainless Steel, Clad Carbon Steel, and IGSCC.

• Through-wall sizing for above

• Single Side Access for above (see below)

• 2” diameter through 50” diameter (flat)

• .200” T through 3.5”T

To test the limitations of the procedure, and to see if it could be done, two technicians challenged the entire PDI qualification examination with all samples limited to single side access. Both technicians completed the entire examination in less than 8 hours including the IGSCC portion. Both technicians obtained passing scores with one of the two achieving a perfect score.

Though it is not recommended to perform examinations from only one side of a weld, at times there may be no other choice. Further, it’s great confirmation of a crack when it can be clearly seen from both sides of an austenetic weld. This is a very useful property of FAST.

• Only 1 Calibration Block for entire range of thickness, materials and curvatures above

• Only 3 Transducers for above. (The transducer needs to be larger as the thickness becomes greater.)

• Detection, Characterization, Through-wall Sizing and Length Sizing are all done during the detection scan with no changes necessary in set-up parameters or equipment.

• Geometric Reflectors are virtually eliminated