In Process
Non-Destructive Evaluation (NDE) is a crucial process for ensuring the lifetime and integrity of safety-critical components.
- Cohort
- Autumn 25
- Sector
- Industrial & Manufacturing · Energy & Power · Aerospace & Defence
What they do
In welding applications the NDE is a separate manufacturing step, performed manually days after the components are completed. This ultimately limits productivity and throughput, along with the potential for increased re-work and scheduling risk if defects are detected post-build.
Product & technology
The inProcess team have addressed the industry pain point, developing the world’s first in-process ultrasonic inspection system. A high-temperature roller sensor can detect welding defects as soon as they arise, shortening the time between defect formation and identification and enabling prompt repairs. When scaled up to operations across the manufacturing, energy, nuclear and aerospace sectors, the opportunity for cost and carbon reductions is significant. Several weeks can be saved for large-scale structures, where a general repair can cost multiple hundreds of thousands of pounds.
Why we invested
- →Expensive problem: >5 % of high value welds fail inspection, costing hundreds of £millions and cases like Flamanville’s €1.5bn overrun.
- →Real time fix: in-process ultrasonic sensing and software turns days-late NDE into live weld insight, cutting rework and schedule risk.
- →High value niche: nuclear, defence and other safety critical sectors where downtime and defects are intolerable.
