DPI-Dye Penetrant

This non-destructive testing technique, also known as liquid penetrant inspection (LPI), is a cost-effective method used to locate surface breaking flaws such as cracks, porosity, laps, seams and other surface discontinuities. Dye penetrant inspection can be applied to both ferrous and non-ferrous materials and all non-porous materials (metals, plastics or ceramics).

It is commonly used to detect defects in castings, forgings and weldments. Intertek works with all industry sectors including aerospace, power generation, petrochemical and oil and gas, and we can provide dye penetrant inspection on-site at our customer’s premises or at our accredited laboratories. In the laboratory, dye penetrant inspection is particularly suitable for the inspection of batch quantities of machined parts, and components up to one tonne in weight and two metres in diameter can be accommodated at our UKAS-accredited laboratory in the UK.

The method is also useful for testing on-site as it is portable, and when applying certain techniques such as visible colour contrast there is no need for additional resources such as electricity or water. This makes it a highly convenient for inspecting surface discontinuities.