Course Title

Remote Field Eddy Current Testing

Course Date / Venue

Course           : 
Course Venue:  Russell Technologies India Pvt. Ltd.
Exam              : 
Exam Venue   :

Course Duration/Credits

Five days - 40 hours

Course Objectives

This course outline is based on general principles and practices of RFT, including some topics that would be part of a level I Eddy Current course.  This course also includes the use of many commercially available documents and products, including the new ASTM standard for RFT, the Ferroscope 308 and Adept-Pro system, Microsoft Windows® operating system, and TubeSheet Diagram reporting software by Inspection Software Limited.  The course may be configured to customer requirements.  At present there is no nationally or internationally recognized standard for personnel qualification in remote field testing (RFT).

Training Methodology

This interactive training course includes the following training methodologies as a percentage of total tuition hours:-
50%      Lectures
30%      Workshops, Group Work & Practical Exercises
20%      Videos & Software

Who Should Attend

The course is intended for Inspection Engineers who are seeking certification as a Team leader. Other engineers, managers or technical staffs who are dealing with small bore tube inspection used in the Petrochemical Industry may also benefit.

Candidates should have the following minimum criteria:
English speaking
Computer literate in all Microsoft XP professional or later including MS Word as well as MS Excel functions
Preferably ASNT Level II UT certification or similar
Able to read Jaeger No 2 or equivalent type eye chart at a distance of not more than 305 mm and illustrate a test within last 12 months
Able to illustrate completion of colour detection test using Ishihara isochromatic plate within last 3 years

Course Certificate

A certificate will be issued to all attendees completing minimum of 80% of the total tuition hours of the course and acceptable examination pass mark.

Required Codes and Standards:

·        Adept-Pro manual hard copies (or print-outs of the tutorial section)

·        ASTM draft RFT standard

·        ASTM news piece on new RFT standard

·        David Mackintosh, Larry Cagle, and Dave Russell, “A New ASTM Standard for Remote Field Testing,” Materials Evaluation, Vol. 58, No. 10, October 2000, pp. 1213 - 1215.

·        David D. Mackintosh, David L. Atherton, Thomas R. Schmidt, and David E. Russell, “Remote Field Eddy Current for Examination of Ferromagnetic Tubes,” Materials Evaluation, Vol. 54, No. 6, June 1996, pp. 652 – 657.

·        TSD tutorial

Course Fee

$2,000.00 per Delegate. This rate includes Participant’s Pack (Folder, Manual, Hand-outs, etc.), coffee/tea on arrival, morning & afternoon of each day.

Course Programme

The following programme is planned for this course. However, the course instructor(s) may modify this programme before or during the course for technical reasons with no prior notice to participants. Nevertheless, the course objectives will always be met:

DAY #1

1.      Introduction

1.1.       Course overview

1.2.       Features of RFT.

1.3.       Current use of RFT in industry.

1.4.       History and economic benefits of RFT.

·        Pioneering by Schmidt at Shell Development; original 1951 patent; oil well casings to small-bore tubes; growth and competition in remote field; codes and standards.

2.      Theory of RFT

2.1.       Basic terminology.

·        remote field testing, through-transmission, exciter, detector, phase, amplitude, sinusoidal, voltage, current.

2.2.       Magnetic and electrical properties of metals.

·        conductivity, resistivity, permeability, magnetic domains, magnetic hysteresis, effects of impurities, pinning sites, stress effects, Curie point, temperature effects, domains and magnetization, residual magnetism, demagnetization.

2.3.       Magnetic fields from coils and permanent magnets

·        Field from current-carrying conductors, coils, and solenoids; basic equations.

2.4.       Induced emf in a coil.

·        Faraday’s law; Lenz’ law; basic equations.

2.5.       Eddy currents and their effects.

·        Conditions to create eddy currents; field attenuation.

·        Remote field, transition, and direct field zones.

·        field configuration and propagation, coupling of exciter and detector, interaction of direct and remote fields, difficulty of analysis in transition zone.

2.6.       Skin depth theory and through-transmission effects.

2.7.       Effects of tube support plates and other external conductive objects.

2.8.       Other electromagnetic methods

·        Conventional eddy current testing (ET): comparison with RFT; interaction with tube wall and flaws; difficulties in carbon steel; reflection vs. through-transmission.

·        T4

·        Saturn

3.      Practical 

3.1         Connecting the instrument, lap-top and probe

3.2         Powering up

3.3         Establishing connection to Instrument

3.4         Choosing probe type and drive levels

3.5         Operating in “Free-Run mode”

3.6         Homing (Normalizing) the display

3.7         Setting up the display

3.8         Running the cal tube

4.      Test:      Basic understanding of RFT vs ET

Day #2

5.      Probe design and response

5.1.       Basic RFT probe and bobbin detector (absolute detector, axial field).

5.2.       Differential detector (radial field).

5.3.       Array probes.

5.4.       Probe design.

·        fill factor; single and double exciter, sensitivity to pits, near-tube-support-plate examination.

6.      Data display and analysis

6.1.       Through-transmission effects on AC fields.

6.2.       Displaying AC signals on the phase-amplitude diagram.

·        voltage plane, impedance plane, nominal point, zero point.

6.3.       Strip chart traces: phase, amplitude, log-amplitude, X, Y.

6.4.       Indications from metal loss, tube support plates, bends and other features.

6.5.       Anomalous fields from cracks.

6.6.       Absolute coil phase shift from metal loss.

6.7.       Processed channels and mixing.

6.8.       RFT abs-ferrous analysis.

·        Voltage plane, absolute coil analysis, depth and extent of metal loss.

6.9.       Differential coil analysis.

·        angle as a depth indicator.

6.10.    Tube support plate indications and analysis.

6.11.    Analysis of sample data.

7.      Instrument operation

7.1.       External features of the Ferroscope 308.

7.2.       Specifications of the Ferroscope 308.

7.3.       Basic RFT instrument design.

·        amplification, gains, harmonic analysis, internal layout

7.4.       Choosing instrument settings

·        frequency, drive voltage, sample rate, gains.

7.5.       Techniques for avoiding amplitude saturation and noise.

7.6.       Settings for optimum pit sensitivity.

8.      Practical:

8.1         Review connection, establishing communication, setting probe parameters

8.2         Creating a tube list.

8.3         Recording data.

8.4        Data display, settings, and tools.

8.5        Calibrating

8.6        Recalling pre-recorded files

8.7        Analyzing data from pre-recorded files

Test:              Probe types and basic signal analysis

Day #3

9       Materials and processes

9.1        Tubes: their manufacture and designations.

9.2        Heat exchangers and boilers: function and construction.

9.3        Corrosion, erosion, and damage mechanisms for heat exchangers and boilers.

9.4        RFT examination planning and practices for heat exchangers and boilers.

9.5        Other components such as feedwater heaters, condensers, reboilers, and chillers.

10      Practical

10.1      Review connection, calibration, tube list creation

10.2      Creating a report from within Adept-Pro

10.3      File management.

10.4      Intro to probe types for RFT

10.5      Data analysis, pre-recorded data

Test:              Materials, processes, heat exchanger and boiler manufacture

Day #4

11      Field practices and the ASTM standard

11.1      Pre-job information.

11.2      Carrying out the examination.

11.3      Reference tube standards.

11.4      Compensating for differences in material properties.

11.5      Secondary (back-up) examinations.

11.6      Reporting results

12      TubeSheet Diagram software

12.1      Building a matrix.

12.2      Assigning categories to tubes.

12.3      Displaying and reporting results.

12.4      Importing data from Adept-Pro.

13      Practical

13.1      Examination and analysis of sample tubes.

·        Activities and duration depends on facilities available on-site and availability of RFT equipment for participants

13.2      Creating a tube sheet diagram

13.3      Exporting report to tube sheet diagram

Test:      ASTM standard, Ref tubes, reporting

Day #5

Day #5 is open for practical use of the system on a variety of cal tubes and tubes with defects.

Open discussion on practical aspects of using RFT for tubing inspection

Introduction to ELF technology (RFT from the outside of the tube)

Introduction to multi channel, coulour map displays, signal rotation, trace nudging analyzing data from multiple channels, effects of lift-off etc.

Course Exam:     4 hours

The exam leads to certification and certified hours of training in RFT through Russell NDE Systems.  There is currently no nationally or internationally recognized standard for personnel qualification in RFT. A certificate suitable for framing is issued for participants who obtain a minimum of 80% on the course exam and have attended all lessons.