But this was a problem.
Destructive methods couldn’t be used to test the facilities under construction or in operation and an in-situ inspection technique was required to directly inspect these industrial sites. In their predicament, the South Korean government was helped by FRONTICS, an industrial engineering company, focused on non-destructive testing method. The company is an expert in the use of instrumented indentation techniques (IIT), which cover a wide range of industries such as oil & gas, energy plants, pipeline, and inspection companies. They delivered simple, speedy and non-destructive evaluation of safety and reliability of on-site structures. Through its IIT-based Advanced Indentation System (AIS) equipment, FRONTICS carried out inspection of imported materials, quality control monitoring, etc. at industrial sites, and were able to measure mechanical properties within the secondary system of nuclear facilities and non-management areas as well.
With its leading technology, the company has developed an automated indentation system for the first time in South Korea, and has also become an industry leader in the U.S. market, through its Chicago-based subsidiary, FRONTICS AMERICA. “Our instrumented indentation test (IIT) can measure mechanical properties (strength and toughness) as well as residual stress in a non-destructive way,” says Dongseong Ro, the general manager of FRONTICS AMERICA.
The IIT method can be applied to various business fields for various purposes. It can verify quality verification document (QVD) by measuring mechanical properties of the imported material through IIT, compare it with mill test report (MTR), and evaluate mechanical properties and residual stress on weldments.
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IIT has the advantage of being able to perform short test times and on-site tests, enabling residual stress evaluation immediately after completion of the PWHT. This allows the cause of an accident to be eliminated in advance
What differentiates FRONTICS are the number of international certifications that it obtained in its 20 years of continuous technology development and research. “We are constantly striving to secure the reliability of technology, not just the development of equipment. In the United States for instance, our technology can be used in accordance with Department of Transportation (DOT) regulations,” mentions Mr. Ro. Additionally, the company is working on standardization for the measurement of mechanical properties using the Instrumented Indentation test method for the Chinese National Standard (GB/T) and the Russian Standard (GOST and most recently for ISO New Work Item Proposal (NWIP), “hardness and material constants of metallic materials—Part 6 which is about evaluation of stress change according to indentation load difference” has been adopted a proposal and devoted to the development of International Standards for Instrumented Indentation Test technology.
Over the years, IIT has been used for many specific applications in the aviation and shipbuilding industries, and construction sites. While IIT is used to evaluate safety by measuring strength on weld zone after welding, it can be applied to check for stability and failure analysis. Currently, FRONTICS is in the final stage of software development to measure impact toughness, which is being verified through internal testing. “Soon, we will try to increase the reliability and reduce error rate by sharing the beta version with partners,” concludes Mr. Ro.
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Company
FRONTICS
Headquarters
Seoul, South Korea
Management
Dongseong Ro, General Manager
Description
FRONTICS’ instrumented indentation test (IIT) can measure mechanical properties (strength and toughness) and as well as residual stress in a non-destructive way covering wide range of industries such as Oil & Gas, Energy Plants, Pipeline, and Inspection Companies