For most of its history, industrial radiography has meant film. Expose it, carry it to the darkroom, develop it, fix it, wash it, dry it, then hold it up to a viewer. A good radiographer could read a weld beautifully that way, but the image was a single physical object, the chemistry produced hazardous waste, and getting a result to the client meant a courier or a scanner.
That is changing quickly. Digital detectors, both direct radiography (DR) panels and computed radiography (CR) plates, now produce an image on screen seconds after the exposure. No darkroom, no chemicals, no waiting for films to dry. We use digital panels on our own work, on site and in the workshop, and the difference in a working day is hard to overstate.
But a digital radiograph is not just a quicker film. It is a data file, and that changes what you can do with it, and what you should be able to prove about it.
What going digital actually needs
Once the image is a file, four things matter that never came up with film.
Measurement in real units
A DICONDE file (the industrial form of DICOM) records the pixel spacing of the detector. That means a length, a wall thickness or the size of an indication can be measured in millimetres from the file itself, not estimated with a ruler held against a monitor. If the measurement goes in a report, it should come from the data.
Proof of image quality
For film, image quality was judged on the density and the IQI you could see. For digital, ISO 17636-2 sets requirements for the normalised signal-to-noise ratio (SNRN) and for basic spatial resolution read from a duplex wire IQI. Those can be measured from the image and checked against the tables for your testing class, technique and thickness, rather than worked out by hand when there is time.
Honest processing
Digital images can be enhanced: contrast, noise reduction, edge enhancement and more. That is a strength, because it helps a qualified interpreter see faint detail, but it raises a fair question from any client: what am I looking at? The original file should stay exactly as acquired, and any processed view should be recorded and labelled as processed.
Secure sharing with a record
Sending digital images has mostly meant USB sticks, screenshots and oversized email attachments. None of those tell you who opened what, and none of them expire. A client should be able to see the images, and you should know who has.
Why we built Clearshot DR
We looked for software that did all of that, ran on whatever device was to hand, and did not need a licence tied to one PC in one office. We did not find it, so our own radiographers in Cumbria and Southampton built it. Test Inspect Group now presents Clearshot DR: digital radiography software for industrial NDT that runs in any web browser.
- Open anywhere. DICONDE files from your panel open in the browser on a PC, tablet or phone. There is nothing to install.
- Enhancement on the graphics card. Eight-band multi-scale enhancement, edge enhancement, rolling-ball flattening, de-striping, guided and anisotropic noise reduction, deconvolution and false colour, with built-in presets and your own.
- Calibrated measurement. Length, angle, line profiles and box statistics in millimetres from the file's pixel spacing. Calibrate on known steps for thickness maps and wall loss, and size indications for length, width, area and equivalent diameter.
- ISO 17636-2:2022 built in. SNRN and duplex IQI measured from the radiograph and checked against the 2022 tables for your class and technique, with the table cited on the result.
- AI that only suggests. It can propose possible indications, marker labels and an IQI reading on their own layer. The qualified interpreter accepts or rejects each one, and records the result.
- Originals untouched. Every original is stored byte for byte with a SHA-256 fingerprint, and the exact processing is saved with each assessment. Exports of a processed view are marked as processed.
- One link for the client. The report and images open in a read-only viewer with no account needed. Each viewer confirms their email with a one-time code, links expire and can be withdrawn, and every open and download is logged.
- Stored in London. Files and records are held on Google Cloud in London (europe-west2), encrypted in transit and at rest, and separated by company. Images are never used to train AI models unless the company opts in.
What it is not
Clearshot DR is for industrial radiography and DICONDE files. It is not a medical product. It does not replace a qualified interpreter: the software measures, checks and suggests, and the person signing the report decides. Enhancement helps a trained eye see; it does not create detail that is not in the exposure.
Try it
The homepage at clearshotdr.ai has a "Try the engine" panel that runs the real processing code on a demo weld in your browser. Nothing is uploaded. If you run digital radiography yourself, there is a 14-day free trial with no card needed.
If you would rather we did the radiography, our teams carry out X-ray and gamma radiography on site and in our facilities, with digital as well as film. Get in touch and we will talk it through.
