Non-destructive examination of ride structures and inspection of fall-protection equipment — the two checks that find what a visual inspection cannot, carried out on site with minimal downtime.
Fatigue cracks begin inside the material. By the time one is visible on the surface of a ride structure, it has usually been growing for a long time, through a great many cycles, under exactly the loads the ride was designed to carry.
Non-destructive testing finds those cracks while they are still sub-surface. On amusement rides it is applied where the standard and the service history point: welds, pins, axles, spindles and the fatigue-critical zones identified in the manufacturer's documentation — or, when that documentation no longer exists, identified by engineering judgement and inspection history.
Rides do not travel to laboratories. Our examinations are carried out in place, at night or during planned closures, and scoped so that the asset returns to service on schedule. The report distinguishes between what must be addressed before the next opening and what should be monitored across the season.
Harnesses, lanyards, anchor points and rescue equipment are life-saving devices that spend most of their life in a cupboard. They degrade in storage, in UV, in the heat of a Gulf summer, and they are frequently kept in service long past the point where a competent person would have withdrawn them.
Inspection to BS EN 365 and BS 8437 covers the item, its marking, its service record and its continued fitness for purpose. Equipment that fails is withdrawn, not noted.
Non-destructive testing applied everywhere is expensive and tells you little. Applied where failures actually initiate, it is one of the highest-value examinations in the industry.
Targeting comes from three sources: the manufacturer's documentation where it identifies fatigue-critical components, the standard's requirements for the device type, and the service history of the specific asset — which modifications were made, which repairs were welded in the field, which assemblies have been rebuilt. On older rides where none of that exists, targeting falls back on engineering judgement and on what comparable assets have shown.
A finding on a fatigue-critical component is not automatically the end of a season. Depending on the indication, options range from monitoring at a defined interval, to local repair with a re-examination, to replacement of the component.
What is not an option is deferring the decision without a basis. Our reports state the indication, its location and size, the applicable acceptance criteria, and the consequence of each available response — so the operator makes a commercial decision with the technical facts in front of them.
Fall-protection equipment fails inspection more often than any other category we examine, and almost never because of use. It fails because of age, storage and heat — a harness left in a plant room through three Gulf summers, a lanyard whose markings have faded past legibility, an anchor point installed by a contractor with no record of who certified it.
Inspection withdraws what is no longer fit. Operators sometimes find that uncomfortable, because withdrawal costs money immediately. The alternative is a harness that is present, logged, and will not hold.
Surface and sub-surface examination of welds and fatigue-critical components, on site.
Targeted by standard, documentation and service history rather than applied uniformly.
Harnesses, lanyards, anchorages and rescue equipment, inspected to BS EN 365 and BS 8437.
Verification of critical bolted connections, recorded rather than assumed.
No. The examination is non-destructive and carried out in place.
It depends on the device, its duty cycle and its history. The interval is set by the standard and the findings, not by habit.
Yes. Inspection is independent of where the equipment was purchased.