Largest Air-Coupled UT Scanning System in North America Delivered
UTEX Scientific Brings together system expertise with software capabilities to deliver custom system for client
UTEX Scientific recently developed an air coupled ultrasonic scanning system, designed to inspect full-scale aircraft panels. The system allows for high resolution in inspection, without having to expose the part to water which could lead to damage of the composite material. Utilizing Sonotec instruments and transducers along with UTEX’s InspectionWare software, the 40'-6" long x 26'-3" wide system is automated to scan 19'-6" x 19'-6" panels up to 9" thick.
Air-coupled ultrasound has been used in aerospace and space launch manufacturing for decades. It remains the only NDE method capable of performing to the requirements of companies building the most sophisticated aircraft and space vehicles on this planet - and off it.
Recent advances in high power, low noise electronics, as well as control software, have made air coupled scanning systems even better.
Why was air-coupled UT necessary?
Non contact: The panels under inspection are thin skinned laminates and honeycomb sandwiches, which cannot tolerate contact. Even light contact from a roller probe would cause creases that are unacceptable.
No contamination: The system does not use liquid or gel couplants. Many aerospace materials and structures cannot be exposed to water or other liquids during the manufacturing process, but they still require inspection before moving to the next manufacturing step or on to the final assembly process. Air-coupled ultrasound does not contaminate the material surface, providing clear imaging to provide quality assurance at the critical pre-assembly phase.
Bond layer detection plus volumetric inspection in a single image. Air-coupled UT is sensitive to changes in the face sheets, the adhesive bond line, and the core structures, all in one single image. X-Ray and other high energy inspection methods can often have difficulty discriminating subtle planar defects in sandwich structures.
Some notable features of the system:
Large Flat Bed Scanner
The scanner in-feed bed is 6m (21 ft) wide and almost 8m (26 ft) long, to accommodate extremely large panels, 19ft-6in. x 19ft-6in. The in-feed and out-feed conveyors are synchronized to provide precise movement of the panels without any slip or drag that would cause surface damage.
Advanced servo drive system with zero EMI / RFI noise
Signal to noise ratio(SNR) is an important parameter in most NDE imaging processes. Defect indications are often subtle indications that can be difficult to detect against the background. The challenge increases when the background is non-homogenous, as it is with laminates and honeycomb structures. Achieving the best possible SNR is especially important in ultrasonic imaging with aircoupled UT. UTEX designs and builds unique scanning systems that have zero noise from the servo motors and motion controls. This is a significant benefit versus standard servo motion systems that are built using noisy PWM servo drives.
Multi-Channel, HighSpeed Instrument
The system used a SONOAIR 4-channel ultrasonic instrument from SONOTEC GmbH, who are world leaders in air coupled ultrasonic technology.
The 4 channels provide high throughput. Depending upon the desired image resolution, coverage of up to 50 square meters per hour is possible. Probes are available from 50 kHz for high penetration of thick honeycomb, to 400 kHz for the highest resolution in thin laminates.
Intuitive controls
The instrument controls and machine controls are integrated within a single operator interface, which follows the workflow of the NDE process. Instead of the NDE technician having to learn how to adapt to a manufacturer's idea of what they need, the software is designed around the NDE process.
This air-coupled UT system is the largest ever built in North America.
Contact us for more information about this and other nondestructive testing and evaluation innovations.
ICMY
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