Structured thinking

In-Depth

A US machine vision technology developer has adapted a standard 2D barcoding system to detect early signs of fatigue in highly-stressed structural components. Charles Masi reports.

Engineers have learned much about how metal fatigues, and the limits of what can be asked of any structure, but it is virtually impossible to keep track of most working structures’ histories.

So, while we can predict how much a given structure can take, once it goes into service, we can’t keep track of the punishment it takes — or how rapidly it ages.

That means it is impossible to predict when it will fail with any certainty. In the absence of any way to predict when an item will fail, we are reduced to a high-stakes gamble in which the potential for catastrophic loss is balanced against the certain cost of early replacement of good components.

According to US company Direct Measurements, which has developed a fatigue indicator system using standard 2D barcoding techniques, if an inexpensive, easy-to-read indicator that performs over the life of structural components could be installed, the impact and benefits in structural-health monitoring could be enormous.

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