Electronic reference images for flaw indications in welds and castings

Since decades the evaluation of flaw indications on radiographs from welds or castings are based on well accepted reference film catalogues from organizations like IIW (weldments), ASTM (castings) or DGZfP (D5 recommendation on heavy steel castings). Today, the transformation of classical film radiography to the digital world is in full progress. Some ASTM standards do not permit the evaluation of digital radiographs in reference to film catalogues. Therefore, these reference film catalogues have to be converted into the digital age too. BAM is supporting this transition by high definition film scanning. The result is a corresponding reference image catalogue. The different standard organizations selected different ways to distribute the digital data. ASTM used high definition film scanning at 10 μm pixel size and distribution of a huge amount of high-res data via DVD. The user sub-samples these high-res data during catalogue import to the resolution of his system. The comparison is done by synchronized image viewing on the computer work station. IIW recently decided to distribute their ISO 5817 reference images installed on tablets, which are used for image viewing too. The tablet image has to be compared with the digital image on the system monitor. DGZfP transformed their D5 reference radiographs into a PDF for monitor viewing. This is the simplest and cheapest solution, but still allows the full usage of the catalogue in the digital era. The status of ongoing work in progress will be discussed.