Wrexham industrial computed tomography specialist OR3D CT is training four employees towards Level 2 aerospace non-destructive testing qualification under EN4179, building a more formal route into inspection of safety-critical components.
The programme is supported through the Flintshire and Wrexham Investment Zone and requires each candidate to complete 80 hours of formal training together with 800 hours of logged practical experience. OR3D is applying the qualification framework to industrial CT, a technique increasingly used where conventional inspection cannot reveal complex internal geometry without cutting a component apart.
EN4179 covers qualification and approval of personnel carrying out non-destructive testing in aerospace manufacturing and maintenance. Established methods include ultrasonic, eddy-current, radiographic, magnetic-particle, and penetrant inspection, with personnel competence controlled because an incorrect interpretation can affect decisions on flight-critical hardware.
Industrial CT produces a three-dimensional representation of internal and external geometry from a sequence of X-ray projections. Engineers can use the resulting volume data to identify voids, inclusions, cracking, porosity, dimensional variation, assembly defects, and other features that may not be accessible from the surface.
The technique has become more relevant as aerospace components become geometrically complex. Additively manufactured metal parts can contain internal passages, lattices, and features that are difficult to inspect by direct line of sight, while composite structures can suffer internal delamination, voiding, or inclusions whose significance depends on position and extent.
OR3D says it aims to become the first company in Wales to apply EN4179 to industrial CT personnel and the only independent UK industrial CT provider operating to that standard. The claim relates to personnel qualification and market position rather than a blanket certification of every scan, because aerospace inspection approval also depends on procedures, equipment capability, calibration, customer requirements, and the specific component being examined.
Personnel training is therefore one part of a larger assurance chain. Equipment has to produce repeatable results at the required resolution, reference standards must be appropriate to the inspection task, and procedures need to define acquisition, reconstruction, interpretation, acceptance criteria, and record keeping. Traceability becomes particularly important when inspection data feeds into a release or life-management decision.
The training is being delivered by the International School of Aerospace NDT, with the programme intended to help OR3D work with aerospace primes, Tier 1 and Tier 2 suppliers, and maintenance, repair, and overhaul organisations. Those customers typically require evidence that personnel, processes, and records meet recognised standards before inspection output is accepted within a regulated production system.
That requirement can be a significant barrier for smaller engineering businesses entering aerospace supply chains. Purchasing advanced inspection equipment establishes technical capability, but regulated customers also expect documented competence, controlled procedures, calibration, quality systems, and repeatable evidence that the service performs as specified.
The Investment Zone is intended to reduce some of that barrier. The ten-year Flintshire and Wrexham programme has up to £160m of revenue and capital funding, with objectives including 6,000 jobs and £1bn of private-sector investment in advanced manufacturing. Its business support includes grants for accreditation and certification alongside capital equipment and property improvements.
The policy is particularly relevant in north Wales, where aerospace, materials, precision engineering, and advanced manufacturing already form a substantial industrial base. Local access to qualified CT inspection could shorten feedback loops during development, first-article inspection, failure investigation, and low-volume production, provided customers accept the procedures and competence behind the service.
CT can also feed information back into manufacturing rather than operating only as a final pass-or-fail check. Mapping internal porosity in an additive part, for example, can help engineers correlate defects with build parameters, while dimensional data from hidden features can expose process drift that external measurement would miss.
Those uses make inspection capability part of process development as well as quality control. The value rises when scan data can be compared consistently between batches, machines, materials, or manufacturing routes, giving production engineers evidence about whether a process change has improved the part rather than merely changed it.
The immediate milestone remains the training of four Level 2 personnel and completion of the required practical experience. Commercial progress will depend on what follows: approved procedures, customer acceptance, repeatable inspection work, and enough aerospace demand to justify maintaining the competence and equipment over time. In regulated manufacturing, the scanner is the visible technology; the qualification system around it is what makes the result usable.
