GE Aerospace to use museum forgery technology to inspect metal parts

GE Aerospace’s global network of service shops will begin using the same technology relied upon to help museums and auction houses identify forged artwork to inspect metal parts. It will be the first deployed through GE Aerospace’s new service technology acceleration centre (STAC), which opens in September. GE Aerospace developed a non-destructive open beam x-ray fluorescence spectroscopy (XRF) inspection device capable of detecting microstructural variations in metal parts. GE Aerospace said in a statement: ""Along with improving the quality and detail of part inspections, this new inspection process is designed to improve our airline customer’s cost of ownership by more clearly delineating airworthy repaired parts that can be returned to the field in lieu of replacing them entirely with new parts."" ""We’re excited to be opening our new STAC facility, which will serve as a major accelerator for scaling and deploying cutting edge inspection and repair processes to market,"" commented GE Aerospace chief MRO engineer Nicole Jenkins. ""We have already begun moving equipment into the facility and preparing to launch our first inspection process that takes a page from the art world to improve the quality and speed of detecting chemical anomalies in metal parts. “With the new XRF technology we have developed in partnership with Bruker, we’re inspecting metal jet engine parts at the same level of forensic detail museums and auction houses use to identify forged pieces of artwork.""