Turnkey idea: how "seeing through" brought TPU a third of a billion

TOMSK, May 29 – RIA Tomsk, Elena Taylasheva. One of the most effective divisions of TPU to work with industry – Engineering School of Non-Destructive Testing – is headed by the youngest at TPU school headmaster – 31-year-old Dmitry Sednev. How his team earned 340 million and how many times you need to hear "no" before getting a contract – in the material of RIA Tomsk.

To look deep into

The world is becoming more complicated, technology is becoming more sophisticated, industry in its advanced areas is developing so rapidly that it requires completely new approaches to security. For example, the rotor blades of advanced helicopters are made of super strong and at the same time lightweight carbon fiber, but before installing they must be checked: is there any delamination inside the material?

Or – France is implementing an international project to build the world's first thermonuclear reactor. Not a single detail should have a hidden defect, otherwise it can fail under load, which will lead to disastrous consequences. And these details, for a minute, can be 1.5 tons weight each ...

Non-destructive testing – is just an opportunity to look deep into an object without destroying it. Dmitry Sednev shows a large transparent cube with a robot manipulator, installed in one of the laboratories of the school, and explains how works one of the most common methods of automated ultrasonic testing – immersion one.

"A part to be checked is placed in the water bath (water is a wonderful conductor, it does not absorb ultrasonic waves). A control program is set, and a robot with an ultrasonic transducer "rolls" along the surface of the object. The resulting data array is processed using a mathematical algorithm developed by us, and creates a three-dimensional model of the internal structure of the product.

One can see the shape of the defect (if any), its actual size. Compared to the traditional, "manual" ultrasonic testing method, when the operator simply moves the sensor with the gel along the surface of the part, this is a significant step forward", – says Sednev.

Installation in the laboratory allows to "see through" parts weighing up to half a ton, and, for example, in the St. Petersburg Scientific Research Institute of Electrophysical Apparatus (NIIEFA), polytechnics are now finishing debugging operating modes for a modernized analogue that controls parts three times harder. They are designed just for a fusion reactor in France, in particular, NIIEFA is responsible for the systems that hold the plasma inside.

"If it were not for the coronavirus, we would solemnly put the system into commercial operation in April", – smiles Sednev.

Commercial case

Dmitry Sednev came to the international non-destructive testing laboratory, founded at the institute of the same name, in 2010, and was among its first employees. TPU then won an open competition to attract leading scientists to Russian universities, the laboratory was headed by professor Michael Kröning, the director of the Fraunhofer Institute, a world "star" in this field.

"I was in my fifth year at the Faculty of Physics and Technology, my research was not directly related to non-destructive testing, but my research supervisor Dmitry Georgievich Demyanuk proposed to work on this topic. We started developing a technology for controlling containers with nuclear materials and waste for Rosatom", – tells Sednev.

The idea was this: each container has "fingerprints" – welds, each of which is unique. Having data on the initial state of the weld, it is possible to check with the help of ultrasound inspection whether it was subjected to any influences, whether someone tried to open the seam, and whether that is the container at all. For this study Sednev received a scholarship from the Presidential Program for Support Young Scientists.

In 2017, a young scientist, at that time already the head of the non-destructive testing laboratory, was invited to the position of the deputy director of the entire school. Literally a month later, his head – Valery Borikov – had a stroke, and Dmitry Sednev became "acting director".

Then Tomsk Electromechanical Plant (TEMP) – a long-time partner of the Engineering School of Non-Destructive Testing – worked on a gigantic project with Gazprom to produce valves (gate valves) for the Power of Siberia gas pipeline. Gate valves to control the gas flow in the pipe were supplied from abroad, mainly from Holland. Tomsk citizens had to make a Russian analogue.

"At the start of the project, Valery Nikolayevich (Borikov) came to the director of TEMP Ivan Pushkarev and suggested to develop an intelligent system for non-destructive testing – new products needed new control methods. The difficulty was that the valves – are huge parts made from whole castings, up to 2.5 meters in diameter. You can’t immerse them in any bath ...

Ivan Ivanovich (Pushkarev) supported the idea. We wrote one grant application, didn’t win, then we wrote the second one – to another program, and we received 150 million rubles from the state (because the project was related to applied research), and the same amount was invested by the plant itself", – Sednev said.

For three years, polytechnic engineers (and the work involved "neighboring" engineering schools of TPU – Computer Science & Robotics, Advanced Manufacturing Technologies, Nuclear Science & Engineering) realized an idea that no one in the world had thought of before. For the new control system, as well as for the standard ultrasound examination, water was also needed, but not in tons, but in the volume ... of one and a half liter bottle.

"The part is placed in a specially designed acoustic path. A device is mounted on the robot’s flange (end), in which, using additive technologies, are placed channels for supplying water to a special material that does not dampen ultrasound. Water is supplied through one channel and drawn back through the other by compressed air, as a result of which there is no prolonged contact with the product occur.

This, I believe, is another breakthrough in non-destructive testing, because there are a lot of materials that cannot be wetted – the same carbon fiber. I hope the project will have its own separate glorious story", – says Sednev.

So, recently he got a call from the Novosibirsk Institute of Nuclear Physics, which also produce test equipment for a thermonuclear reactor in France, and the details cannot be lowered into the bath. “Make us the same cool control system as for the NIIEF, but without water", – they asked.

"I answer: “Imagine, we already have one!". Two days later they come, I take them to TEMP, they are surprised: "Can't the university do that!". Unfortunately, many industrial partners are still in the consciousness that universities develop well, but poorly implement: they say, we screw up with taptites that fall off, then wrap it with blue electrical tape and deliver work to the customer with the words: "If you do not breathe, it will work".

We have to break this stereotype: we have a very high culture of modern technological production. In general, I would call our team leaders in the field of custom solutions for non-destructive testing all over the world. This is a good strategy for the university: to set trends themselves instead of following them, at least in two or three sectors", – Sednev emphasizes.

Turnkey tasks

In 2019, TPU Engineering School of Non-Destructive Testing earned 342 million rubles, this is one of the most successful indicators in TPU. As for the specific output per person, the School is the leader in the university – it is 4 million 160 thousand rubles per employee. The School is also the best in terms of business contracts – in a year it completed them for 192 million.

This and next year, Sednev hopes to further increase turnover: will begin a project with the Institute of Nuclear Physics, will develop a cooperation with Cancer Research Institute on the use of betatrons for cancer treatment, negotiations are underway with Sukhoi design bureau, which needs a device to control engines "in the field", as well as with a number of companies that need a "desktop" tomograph.

Sednev believes: the university not only CAN earn money on engineering – it MUST do it!

"We must take complex tasks and solve them on a turnkey basis; we must act as an integrator of new solutions for the industry. Moreover, we need to look for industrial partners ourselves, and not wait for them to come. And do not be afraid to be, I'm sorry, buggered off", – he says.

He himself was told to get lost countless times: "We come and say "Our system costs 10 million, and they reply: "We only have a million, goodbye". If you knocked on a closed door once, they didn’t open you, you turned around and left – this is not the right approach. If you clearly understand that the idea is worthwhile, you should look for those doors that will open".