An Analysis of a New Non-Destructive Test: A Niche Stand-alone Metallurgical Consulting Service to Meet Customer Needs and Provide Imagineering Finishing Technologies with a Competitive Advantage.

Student: Olivia Romeo, 2015-2016

Imagineering Finishing Technologies (IFT) has the capacity to use analytical procedures and metal testing techniques that do not cause damage to a tested product in order to assess the properties of metals and components. While IFT has long used these Non-Destructive Testing (NDT) techniques in the context of its provision of other services to clients, IFT believes that there may be a market for conducting these NDT tests as a stand-alone service. This thesis will seek to determine whether such a market does exist, the extent to which the testing services that IFT is capable of offering will satisfy the market, and whether, if IFT does decide to provide these services as a stand-alone product, they will be able to maintain a competitive advantage in the future. An examination of the underlying corrosion science and chemical engineering resistance techniques will be conducted to form a basis for the usage of this testing method. Based on feedback collected from customer validation interviews, this thesis will determine whether IFT can capture market share by expanding its precision metal finishing offerings to include stand-alone NDT.