Dr. Ringermacher has 30 years of experience in the field of nondestructive evaluation specializing in the development of advanced thermal imaging techniques for the last 20 years. Presently he is the project leader of the GE laboratory for thermal imaging and in conjunction with the CT lab is applying thermal imaging together with CT imaging to evaluate the quality of CMC materials and components.

Dr. Ringermacher earned his Ph.D. in Physics in 1980 from Washington University, St. Louis, in the field of Nuclear Magnetic Resonance. He did post-doctoral work at NASA, Langley in nondestructive evaluation. He served in the US Army, stationed at West Point and was a Summer Fellow at Los Alamos Nat’l Lab. He joined GE in 1997 after 16 years at the United Technologies Reseacrh Center where he researched laser ultrasonics and thermal imaging as well.

At GE he developed the first thermal imaging NDE competitive with quantitative ultrasonic NDE for airfoil applications and advanced the novel methods towards CMC applications. Dr Ringermacher has over 80 publications and holds 20 patents and many awards in the area of thermal imaging. His outside interests include studying General Relativity and Cosmology, on which he has published in peer-reviewed journals as well as astrophotography. He is a Fellow of the American Society for Nondestructive Testing.

Abstract

NDT : Surfing the Electromagnetic Spectrum

Advances in Nondestructive Evaluation demand an arsenal of techniques.  This was as true twenty years ago as it is today. As materials and their associated technologies progress, so must the strategy for evaluating the quality of the product. Nondestructive Evaluation is a constant struggle to extract, from classical and quantum physics, the quintessential elements that will optimally address an inspection requirement, apart from purely academic interest.  It must work to be useful and thereby advance the field.

The electromagnetic spectrum, from Roentgen to Maxwell/Hertz, lies at the foundation of both classical and quantum physics. Not only has NDE plucked pearls form every nook of the spectrum ranging from X-rays to T-rays but also has managed to utilize virtually every known coupling of the spectrum to the classical mechanics of heat and sound.  I will “surf” the spectrum to provide a sampling of what NDE has extracted past and present as well as try to couple to its future.