Affordable NTD Supplies Available During Supply Chain Shortage.

One of the downfalls of the last 18 months has been supply chain shortages. This has affected several sectors of commerce and manufacturing. Yet, in the wake of these major supply chain disruptions, Metallurgical Supply Co. (METSUCO) based near Houston, TX, stands ready with affordable NDT supplies available during supply chain shortages.

In an interview with NPR, Brian Deese, director of the National Economic Council, “There’s no quick immediate fix. But the answer is to have a dedicated focus on building domestic capability to both invent and innovate”. And the fact that there are multiple supply chain issues happening almost all at once has certainly exposed that this is true. From raw material shortages such as copper, to the mess of shipping container shortages and a rise in container costs, the issues do not look like they will be going away anytime soon.

If you are in the oil and gas industry, communications, aerospace, or automotive, (just to name a few) this certainly does not come as new news as you have been feeling it over the last 18 months. Yet, products still have to be manufactured, buildings are still going up and innovation is still moving on. This is where Metallurgical Supply Co. can help step in and ease the pain for companies by supplying affordable nondestructive testing equipment and supplies.

Nondestructive testing of manufactured products, equipment and goods is even more critical now than ever before. Companies cannot afford to waste raw materials and components as it may be much harder now to find, replace, and foot the higher cost. Nondestructive testing such as Liquid penetrant inspection (LPI), also called fluorescent penetrant inspection (FPI) or penetrant testing (PT) use supplies like the Spotcheck® Penetrant Kits to inspect surface-breaking defects in non-porous materials. As outlined previously, automotive industry uses this specific nondestructive test for steering spindles, aluminum suspension parts, and aluminum rims. Fluorescent dye is used in locating leaks in air conditioning systems.

In March 2021, Forbes reported “Challenge is for the oil and gas industry to collectively invest approximately $500 billion each year just to keep up with demand. What makes this particularly difficult is the strong headwind of rising capital costs. Since 2015 the oil and gas industry has underinvested, especially in the upstream portion of the business. Once the global spare capacity is depleted there will be a need to reinvest in not only maintaining but actually growing oil and gas production to satisfy the needs of customers around the world.”

This means oil and gas companies cannot afford costly mistakes. One of the ways to avoid that is with nondestructive testing. For example, Magnetic Particle Inspection is a form of non-destructive testing that detects surface and slightly subsurface flaws in most ferromagnetic materials such as iron, nickel, cobalt, and some of their alloys. The oil and gas industry uses this type of NDT to detect surface cracks in welds.

Regardless of what manufacturing industry you are in, you are more than likely feeling the effects of supply chain disruptions. From rising costs of raw materials such as steel to shortages of semiconductors and everything in between, there is an issue affecting just about every manufacturing sector. This means the need to detect critical flaws early in the innovation and production phases are critical to avoid costly issues in the future. Metallurgical Supply Co. (METSUCO) has been reliably supplying multiple industries with affordable nondestructive testing equipment and supplies for over 30 years and is not going anywhere anytime soon. Some of the industries we serve include oil and gas, automotive, heavy manufacturing, universities, and quality testing labs. If there is something specific that is needed and not found on our site, contact us and we will do custom sourcing for you and return your quote request within 24 hours! Call 713-827-0700 or email sales@metsuco.com for inquiries into our NDT testing or other metallurgical products!