Non-destructive testing in construction

Non-destructive testing (NDT) in construction has successfully made the leap into practical applications in recent years. As a result, determining the compressive strength of concrete and identifying reinforcement locations have now become standard in testing.

Despite this progress, some barriers are still preventing construction-related NDT from becoming established in all life cycle phases – from production and its monitoring to recurring inspections during operation, and with targeted maintenance. It is important to note that there are currently no specific procedure or product-related standards regulating or setting out binding requirements for NDT in construction.

The NDT laboratory is therefore active in many areas of NDT within construction. We support global activities for standardising and regulating NDT by actively participating in national and international panels, contributing our knowledge in areas such as the ‘regulated world of NDT’ in nuclear applications. In doing so, we seek to build a foundation for applying standards to construction-related NDT in the long term. As part of the Swiss Association for Technical Inspections (SVTI), we also run training courses on NDT in construction and give lectures at a number of engineering schools and universities. We thus hope to make testing more reliable by ensuring that construction-related NDT personnel are properly trained. We also support our customers by providing NDT concepts and NDT inspections. In addition, we want to expand the scope of non-destructive testing in construction through research and development in internal, national, European and global projects as well as increase efficiency in construction-related NDT in terms of both data acquisition and data analysis.