Nov. 3, 2009 (PR Newswire) -- DALLAS and RIDGEFIELD, Conn., Nov. 3 /PRNewswire/ -- Dapco Industries, Inc. is using Texas Instruments Incorporated's (TI) (NYSE: TXN) new TMS320C6472 digital signal processor (DSP) to improve the ability of Dapco's non-destructive testing (NDT) equipment to peer inside railroad rails, high-speed train wheels, high pressure gas cylinders, and other critical transportation, power generation, and infrastructure components to pinpoint internal defects before structural failures cause safety risks to life and property. Dapco will deliver the first commercial version of its C6472-based ultrasonic testing instrumentation to the Union Pacific Railroad next month. Processing power up to 4.2 GHz, faster real-time processing speeds and the industry's lowest power consumption were critical features imperative in Dapco's decision to deploy the six-core C6472 DSP at the heart of their test equipment.

"Our next-generation test and inspection instruments will have significantly greater precision and be capable of 3D imaging, similar to that of medical ultrasonic imaging; things that just were not possible with legacy equipment," said Ron Keenan instrumentation development leader at Dapco. "Internal defects in the structures and components we are dealing with are simply dangerous. Because of the capabilities of the C6472, our defect detection capability will increase in speed and accuracy. Technicians in the field, inspecting rail or high-pressure gas cylinders, and in factories where pipe and other product is being manufactured, will be able to locate and classify defects that were previously considered undetectable. By accelerating the speed and accuracy of these tests, we will lower the cost of the inspection process and make it more effective."

Dapco is implementing the C6472 in a new system architecture designed to detect the smallest defects quickly and allow technicians to examine their characteristics much more closely than they could in the past. Moreover, the system will have the intelligence to dynamically and automatically categorize defects, reducing the risk of human operator error. TI DSPs are also used by other companies for imaging and diagnostic systems as well as other high-performance imaging applications.

High-Speed Architecture

Dapco's next-generation NDT systems have been designed for "real-time" digital processing of received acoustic signals within a 100 micro-second (us) test cycle time. That is, every 100 us, the C6472-based system pulses acoustic energy into the test piece, and monitors the test piece for any returned acoustic energy.