Magnetic Particle Inspection

Magnetic Particle Inspection is used to detect cracks, laps, seams, inclusions and other discontinuities on or near the surface of ferromagnetic metals and alloys.

Magnetic particle examination can be applied to raw material, billets, finished and semi-finished materials, welds and in-service parts.

This inspection method does not work on non-ferromagnetic metals and alloys such as austenitic stainless steel.

In order to get an accurate read, steel parts must be clean and free of heat treat scale.

Steel parts are loaded into the magnetic particle inspection equipment which magnetizes the part.

The parts are then coated with a fine layer of iron oxide particles suspended in a fluorescent dye. If the parts have voids or surface defects, the iron oxide particles will “stick” to those areas because they have been magnetized.

The parts are inspected under ultra violet light for any such voids or defects.

If parts are deemed unacceptable by the inspector, 3P customer service is notified to alert the customer.

After processing, parts are cleaned by method of Vapor Degrease and moved to the next operation.

Typically, the next operation is Passivation, Shot Peen,