Pipeline expert Ken Murphy from Exova the worldwide testing and advisory group has scooped a major award for his work in developing various non-destructive testing techniques to further improve the reliability of polyethylene joints.


Ken, a project manager for Exova, was handed the Pipeline Industries Guild’s bi-annual JW Jones Memorial Award at its annual dinner held at the Grosvenor House Hotel, London, for his technical paper on a microwave-based non-destructive testing (NDT) method.

He said: “I am delighted to have been honored by the Guild in this way. This award recognises the continued need for innovation within the industry and highlights the steps taken by Exova to address this.”

Exova is a leader in the research, development, testing, quality assurance and failure analysis of modern plastic pipe materials and joints.

Along with this ongoing work, Exova has assessed various NDT techniques in an attempt to further improve the reliability of polyethylene joints in this field.

Ken added: “In the past, reliable inspection of polyethylene pipe joints using NDT has proven to be difficult, but this has generally been based upon the use of existing metallic inspection methods, including radiography and ultrasound.”

Advances in technology have seen the development of a new NDT technique using low voltage microwave imaging.

Microwave imaging has been developed in North America to inspect modern dielectric materials such as polyethylene. Comprehensive laboratory testing indicated that this technique could be used reliably and repeatedly to detect issues related to poor joint fabrication in butt welds and electrofusion joints. Issues which have been identified include fine particle contamination, lack of fusion and misalignment.

More recently, Exova has carried out field trials on various polyethylene joints to establish a correlation between the microwave NDT results obtained and mechanical testing results.