Ir. Peter A.A.M. Somers

Peter Somers received his degree in aeronautics at the Delft University of Technology in 1971, and joined Fokker Aircraft’s R&D department of advanced materials and processes in 1973. He was initially involved in the development of methods for the characterization of surfaces, within Fokker’s interest in surface quality for adhesive bonding. His main activities included the development of equipment for:
- Surface impedance testing
- Volta potential measurements
- Electron microscopy
- Auger spectroscopy.
In 1975 he became responsible for the development and implementation of methods for non-destructive inspection. The most important methods were:
- The Fokker Bondtester, a resonance impedance device for testing of bonded joints
- Ultrasonic methods for the inspection of metallic and composite materials
- Eddy current methods, mainly for crack detection
- Optical methods, among which holography and shearography, for the detection of disbonds and damage in light-weight structures.

Under his responsibilty more than 100 documents, mostly internal Fokker reports, have been issued, and two patents were granted.

He has joined the Optics Research Group in 1998 for the the continued development of real time speckle interferometry.