NDT Quick Reference Chart | All 6 Methods Compared | Atlantis NDT

Cost key: $ = Low (<$200/test), $$ = Moderate ($150-$500), $$$ = High ($300-$800+). Actual costs vary by scope, location, and complexity.

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What this page covers

NDT Method Comparison Table
Method Quick Facts
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Explore Each Method in Detail
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Key points covered

Compare all 6 NDT methods at a glance: UT, RT, MT, PT, ET, VT. Detection capabilities, materials, cost, speed, and skill level.

What this tool is actually modelling

Every estimate of this kind rests on assumptions, and the useful ones state them. The output here is a starting figure for a conversation with your own operations and finance teams — not a quotation, and not a substitute for a scoped assessment. Inputs you supply about your own operation dominate the result; industry defaults are only used where you have no figure of your own, and they are deliberately conservative.

Getting the inputs right

Use your own historical figures wherever you have them. Operations teams are usually accurate about downtime and mobilisation cost because they have lived through the events; vendor benchmarks are not.
Count the non-billable time honestly — report preparation, audit-evidence assembly, standby and rework are where inspection businesses actually lose margin, and they are routinely excluded from estimates.
Separate one-off transition effort from recurring effect. Benefits that depend on a workflow change take one to two inspection cycles to appear, not one month.
Test the result at the edges. If the conclusion reverses when a single input moves 20%, the conclusion is the input, not the model.

How to read the output

Treat the figure as a range, not a point. In practice the largest and most reliable component of value in inspection operations is time recovered from work that produces no revenue — report formatting, chasing certification and calibration records, and assembling evidence for audits. The least reliable components are those that assume immediate behaviour change across a whole organisation. Weight your interpretation accordingly, and if you are building an internal business case, present the conservative end.

What it does not tell you

It does not tell you whether your data is in a state to support the change, which is usually the real constraint. Before committing to any programme on the strength of a calculator, check whether you can reconstruct one issued inspection report end to end — technician qualification, instrument calibration and procedure revision as at the date of inspection. If you cannot, that gap will consume more of the timeline than anything this tool models.