E.D.
Having worked in the Forging supply base with an automotive Tier 1 supplier for over three decades, it has been a challenge from time to time finding a knowledgeable NDT resource. Although many companies have certain NDT capabilities, they don’t always have the necessary skilled, experienced personnel that are well rounded in forging, manufacturing, machining, heat treat, metallurgy, NDT, etc.
Relative to NDT as a third-party inspection resource, most companies offer services such as the typical magnetic particle inspection, ultrasonic testing, X-ray, dye penetrant, and radiography inspection. However, very few offer the service of Eddy Current Inspection (ECI), as historically ECI has been captive in-house with the OEM’s and Tier 1’s.
In 2014-2015, I was fortunate enough to come across Mr. Bablu Ratnaparkhi, whom I quickly realized had full credentials, experience and knowledge in all the areas mentioned above. I was also very fortunate to have Mr. Bablu Ratnaparkhi work for me for a couple of years before he decided to venture out on his own and start his own company. While working with me, Bablu was very instrumental in the implementation of Eddy Current Inspection (ECI) for a half dozen or so key programs.
His 40 years of experience in NDT, heat treat, manufacturing and metallurgy speaks for itself. People with this background and experience are very limited in the automotive industry. Even within the NDT industry, it is very difficult to find experienced people that have a good understanding of the areas mentioned above and can effectively implement the optimal NDT methods.
Without his services, we would have not been able to respond to our customers’ needs within a reasonable amount of time. The response time we have been able to offer is less than 48 hours and within 24 hours in most cases, for the set-up and implementation of an ECI service. If we had to procure this service from a third-party source we would typically be looking at a minimum of one week, to several weeks or even months as custom probes/coils would have to be designed and built, which can involve multiple parties.