Quality Assurance Methods: The NDT Benefits, QA and QC

Almost all the systems undergo a testing phase before they reach the end users. One of such testing methods is the Non Destructive Testing (NDT). It is the process of inspecting, testing, and evaluating the components and materials of a product or a system without destroying any of its parts. NDT is very beneficial to the manufacturing, fabrication and the construction industries. Some of the benefits include:

  • Safety – The NDT determine if a system component is in need of repair. These tests are conducted in ways that maintains the highest level of safety for the tested product as well as the tester.
  • Reliability – A wide variety of available options helps the tests to generate accurate results. The non-destructive tests conducted on a given piece of equipment or a part of the machinery helps to identify the areas of inaccuracy.
  • Affordability – Out of all the maintenance tests done on the components and machinery, NDT’s are always the most affordable option than the destructive test.

Fortunately, there are several methods to carry out non-destructive testing. These methods may need special equipment or high degree of specialization. Some of them are:

  • Visual inspection method that looks for issues in the surface such as looks, slags, craters, and cracks.
  • Radiographic method that can detect microscopic internal flaws in the system structure.
  • Liquid penetrant method to detect leakages in the product body.
  • Ultrasonic method to identify both surface and sub-surface flaws.

Quality Assurance (QA) and Quality Control (QC) are two another components when it comes to testing a product or a system. While QA provides the overall guidelines used to ensure there are no defects in the product, QC is a process of reviewing the products to check whether the quality is maintained when it reaches the customer.

The NDT process provides a base to the QA and QC to decide whether a product is fit and meets all the quality and safety standards. Only after this, the product moves towards the later stage of processing.

 

Course on HVAC and Job Opportunities

HVAC refers to the technology that deals with heating, ventilation, and air conditioning for indoors and vehicles. The branch of HVAC system design is a sub-discipline of mechanical engineering which is based on the principles of thermodynamics, heat transfer, and fluid mechanics.

Rapid advancement in the technology increased the need for more professionals in this field. The HVAC technicians play a vital role during the installing and servicing the systems. These professionals control the air temperature and its quality in a building.

Aspiring candidates who wish to make a career in the field of HVAC can take a course through certification, diploma, associate’s or bachelor’s degree programs. Different levels of HVAC courses have similar curriculum with course durations ranging from 12 months to 2 years. The HVAC course covers topics such that:

  • Electrical Heating
  • Power and Resistance
  • Water Volume
  • Pollution
  • Green Technology
  • Cost Efficiency

Heating and Air Conditioning Training

A few years ago, most of the heating, ventilating and air conditioning technicians received on-the-job training. However, with the rapid advancement in the technology, the technicians are now offered training through classroom study, internships and apprenticeships.

Candidates who receive these training learn how to install, repair and maintain ventilation, heating, refrigeration and air conditioning systems. While some comprehensive training programs include all of these systems, other may focus only on some specific areas.

Highlights of the HVAC training:

  • It is usually a combination of classwork and hands-on training.
  • Students may explore topics like electrical design, commercial heating, circuitry, and air conditioning systems.
  • They may also learn principles of system design and refrigeration.

HVAC can provide some amazing job opportunities for the candidates who wish to make a career in this field. HVAC is a thriving career and gives a great job satisfaction for people who are interested in this field. Some of the opportunities in HVAC are:

  • HVAC Service Technicians
  • HVAC Mechanical Engineers
  • Project Managers
  • HVAC Service Managers
  • Sales and Administrative Coordinators
  • HVAC Control Technicians
  • Maintenance Supervisors
  • Quality Assurance Specialists
  • Executive Level Professional Managers

HVAC job opportunities are highly demanding and lucrative as people are making comfort as their priority. Engineering candidates can easily grab these job roles soon after completing a short-term or a long-term course in HVAC. The best part of the HVAC profession is, it adds comfort to people’s lives.

Nasa’s 2020 Mission: The Mars Helicopter

NASA is working on its next mission to launch a helicopter to the Mars. The project is scheduled in July 2020. The project is in the development phase at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) since the year 2013. Some of its features are:

  • The Mars helicopter will weigh around 1.8 kg and will be designed to operate in the planet’s extremely thin atmosphere.
  • Earth, being several light minutes away, the helicopter will be highly autonomous.
  • It will receive and operate on the commands from the ground to share information.

The Mars helicopter is a high risk- high reward project and if successful, it may open new opportunities in interplanetary exploration.

The Future of CAD: Emerging Trends in Product Design

The CAD/CAE industry is now able to manage more activities with the help of advanced enterprise or global solutions. The design engineers across multiple sectors are currently working with the new industry standards insisting the middle managers to work with the advanced design patterns. These patterns are also more inclined towards the customer demands as well as their own creative ability.

Simulation Workflow Management (SWM)

Although, the simulation activities carried out using the traditional desktop applications are capable of leveraging the power of global enterprise solutions across boundless data centres, the new technologies will make the complex design simulation task simpler. One of such a method is the Simulation Workflow Management (SWM).

  • It is a concept that integrates workflow management with the simulation technology.
  • SWM is used across the design industry for simulation purposes.
  • It also aims to make the simulation task of a complicated design simpler and readily available through its different features and functionalities.

Simulation Challenges

  • Simulation, in the traditional approaches, required computational resources and rigorous data transfers which is not always a good approach as the technology is transforming every day.
  • The emerging technologies also challenge the leaders with the large global simulation workflows across the multi-domain environments.

However, over the next few years, technologies such as the increased bandwidth, data centre capabilities on a worldwide basis, and the new business technologies will resolve these challenges.

The ESTECO Project

ESTECO, a software provider has gained extensive experience in this area. They align the optimization and simulation techniques with the standard industry. The company also have accepted the norms and the different notations to mitigate these challenges. It is currently working and testing a groundbreaking multi-domain SWM solution. The application will help different industries to innovate the different customized tools for the CAD/CAE industry.

SMW Making Product Design Easy

Such a technology breakthrough will be highly beneficial for the people working in the CAD/CAE technologies.

  • The technology will allow them to develop and store the simulation workflow process as the people at the different managerial levels controls and tests new ideas and concepts from any other computing device.
  • It will help the product and service designers and developers to explore new design alternatives and techniques to achieve them.
  • The technology will also be able to maintain a history of their SWM concepts and techniques.

The SWM technology, therefore, makes working in the simulation environment easy for the research and development teams. Moving forward, we can also expect new opportunities in this technology.

What’s new in AutoCAD 2019?

CAD technology introduces features and techniques that revolutionizes the way we work with software and product development. With the introduction of AutoCAD 2019, users will be able to enjoy better work optimization and enhanced performance with toolset add-ons.

Below are some of the enhanced toolset features, which the 2019 version will bring about.

Architectural toolset

The architectural toolset will help designers in composing intelligent and eye appealing designs. This added feature of AutoCAD 2019 allows the designer to make use of specialized building design features and 8000 plus intelligent architectural object-styles to speed up their architectural drawing and documentation.

 Mechanical toolset

AutoCAD 2019 lets the users to integrate their ideas and thoughts in one part of their drawing with this improvised mechanical toolset. Users can use specialized mechanical design features and 700,000+ intelligent manufacturing parts, features, and symbols to speed up their design process.

 Electrical toolset

The electrical toolset is an enhanced feature of this AutoCAD 2019 version. This helps in efficient electrical documentation control and quick modification with its industry specific features. It also enables users to make the best use of specialized electrical design components and 65,000+ intelligent electrical symbols for enhanced productivity.

 (MEP) Mechanical, Electrical & Plumbing toolset

With MEP toolset in place, users will be able to redefine their design process on the whole. The MEP toolset features specific MEP engineering features and 10,500+ intelligent mechanical, electrical, and plumbing objects, which will enable the designers to draft, design, and document building systems in no time.

 Plant 3D toolset

This, specialized plant design and engineering toolset enables the user to efficiently produce P&IDs and then integrate them into a 3D plant design model. It also aids in quick creation of schematic diagrams, plant layouts, and other drawings.

 

Map 3D toolset

Map 3D toolset allows user to map features to incorporate GIS and CAD data to assist in planning, design, and data management. The feature also allows to access spatial data stored in files, databases, and web services, and aggregate it with the AutoCAD design data.

 Raster Design toolset

Raster design toolset is enhanced to support edit-scanned drawings and convert the raster images into DWG objects. This is made possible with the quick to edit, cleanup, transform images, and manipulate raster entities features.

Compared to the other version, AutoCAD 2019 has a lot of promising features, which lets one develop designs in the way they have visualized and thought of. This new version also showcases industry specific toolset, which will redefine the whole process of designing and conceptualization.