NDE 4.0: Digital Twin, Semantics, Interfaces, Networking, Feedback, New Markets and Integration into the Industrial Internet of Things

The industrial revolution is divided into three phases by historians: The invention of the steam engine (mechanization), electricity (mass production) and the microelectric revolution (automation). There was a similar development in non-destructive evaluation: tools such as lenses or stethoscopes allowed the human senses to be sharpened, the conversion of waves makes the invisible visible and thus offers a "look" into the components and finally automation, digitization and reconstruction. During the entire industrial development NDE was decisively responsible for the quality and thus for the success of the manufactured goods. Industry is now talking about a fourth revolution: The informatization, digitization and networking of industrial production. As always, NDE will be critical to the success of this fourth revolution by providing the database needed for feedback in a networked production environment. For NDE, this will lead to change. The test results must be made available to a networked production environment in such a way that they can be evaluated for feedback loops, the testability must be considered in the design and the reliability of the test statements will become increasingly important. This publication presents first an orientation to NDE 4.0, including the development of Industry and NDE, a definition of its revolutions, a collection of several current-day challenges of NDE, and a discussion whether and how those can be solved with NDE 4.0. Second this publication presents concepts on how NDE can be integrated into Industry 4.0 landscapes: The Reference Architecture Model Industry 4.0 (RAMI 4.0) shows the complete Industry 4.0 space and allows every Industry 4.0 standard and interface to be located. The Industry 4.0 Asset Administration Shell (AAS) implements the digital twin and is the interface between Industry 4.0 communication and the physical device. The ...