Bombardier Transportation wished to replace magnetic particle inspection of their train bogies with a technique which did not require removal and reapplication of paint.

Demonstrations on a sample bogie showed that ACFM could be used for this purpose, but Bombardier requested several modifications and additions to the standard equipment to meet its needs.

The primary change was to add an automated defect recognition and sizing algorithm to assist the operator. Such a development is possible when geometries are being inspected on a regular basis.

Other additions included office-based software to correlate inspection data from several operators, and customised reports.