A welding portion inspection device includes a device body, a probe, a sound propagation medium, an elastic support mechanism configured to allow the probe and the sound propagation medium to be elastically supported to the device body, and a guide member formed of a material higher in hardness than a metal plate. The guide member is disposed such that a first part is positioned on a side of the sound propagation medium and second parts protrude beyond a tip surface of the sound propagation medium. The probe is configured to oscillate a ultrasonic wave such that the ultrasonic wave is emitted to a welding portion of the metal plate through the sound propagation medium and perform inspection of the welding portion based on a detected reflected wave of the ultrasonic wave in a state where the tip surface of the sound propagation medium faces the welding portion.

A method and arrangement for testing and/or correction of a weld (34, 36, 38) of a test object (26, 102), including alignment of an ultrasonic probe (16, 128) guided by a robot (100) on a target position of the weld (28, 30, 32), determination of the actual position (34, 36, 38) of the weld by means of an optical sensor (22, 130) and alignment of the ultrasonic probe (16) on the actual position, and measurement of the weld, where CAD data of the target position of the weld (28, 30, 32) is made available, on the basis of the CAD data of the weld the ultrasonic probe (16, 128) is aligned on the target position of the weld, and the ultrasonic probe is placed on the weld with controlled force after determination of the actual position (34, 36, 38) of the weld by means of the optical sensor (22, 130).

Provide an inspection apparatus and an inspection method capable of quickly inspecting a situation of joining between members in a joined body. The inspection apparatus is an inspection apparatus inspecting a situation of joining between a plurality of members in a joined body including the members joined to and overlapped one another.

According to one embodiment, a control method includes setting a transmission angle of an ultrasonic wave to a standard angle. The control method further includes transmitting an ultrasonic wave at the set transmission angle and detecting an intensity of a reflected wave from an object. The control method further includes calculating a tilt angle based on a gradient of the intensity. The tilt angle indicates a tilt of the object. The control method further includes resetting the transmission angle based on the tilt angle.

According to one embodiment, an inspection system includes a probe and a controller. The probe includes a plurality of ultrasonic sensors arranged in a first direction. The probe contacts a weld portion by moving in a second direction crossing the first direction. Each of the plurality of ultrasonic sensors transmits an ultrasonic wave toward the weld portion and receives a reflected wave. The controller detects a joint and a non-joint at a plurality of points along the first direction of the weld portion based on the plurality of reflected waves. The controller adjusts an angle of the probe around a third direction based on a number of the joints or the non-joints detected for the plurality of points. The third direction is perpendicular to the first direction and crosses the second direction.

A method for scanning a weld buildup formed on a circumferential portion of a disc for a steam turbine. The method includes providing an ultrasound probe for generating at least one ultrasound beam sweep. The circumferential portion is scanned with a first beam sweep oriented in a first beam orientation to detect a first flaw type in the weld buildup. The circumferential portion is also scanned with a second beam sweep oriented in a second beam orientation to detect a second flaw type in the weld buildup. Further, the circumferential portion is scanned with a third beam sweep oriented in a third beam orientation to detect a third flaw type in the weld buildup. The method also includes rotating the disc about a disc axis during scanning of the circumferential portion and moving the first, second and third beam sweeps in a direction parallel to the disc axis during scanning.

A device for evaluating quality of welding spots of a panel is disclosed. The device includes a vibration transferring member, a first access member contacted with one surface of one end portion of the vibration transferring member and with the one surface of the panel, a second access member contacted with one surface of the other end portion of the vibration transferring member and with the one surface of the panel, an oscillator for supplying vibration to the one end portion of the vibration transferring member, a sensor disposed on the vibration transferring member to detect characteristic of vibration transferred along the vibration transferring member, and a computing device for analyzing characteristic of the welding spots using characteristic of vibration detected in the sensor.

A phased array probe system and method for testing a spot-weld on a structure. The phased array probe includes a plurality of transducers and may include a flexible delay line. The phased array probe is positioned at a first position on the structure relative to the spot-weld. First ultrasonic signals are generated to and received from the spot-weld using at least one first transducer of the phased array probe. The first received ultrasonic signals are processed to determine a second optimized position on the structure relative to the spot-weld. Second ultrasonic signals are generated at the second optimized position to and received from the spot-weld using second transducers of the phased array probe. The second received ultrasonic signals are processed to determine a feature dimension of the spot-weld.

A welding portion inspection device includes a device body, a probe, a sound propagation medium, an elastic support mechanism configured to allow the probe and the sound propagation medium to be elastically supported to the device body, and a guide member formed of a material higher in hardness than a metal plate. The guide member is disposed such that a first part is positioned on a side of the sound propagation medium and second parts protrude beyond a tip surface of the sound propagation medium. The probe is configured to oscillate a ultrasonic wave such that the ultrasonic wave is emitted to a welding portion of the metal plate through the sound propagation medium and perform inspection of the welding portion based on a detected reflected wave of the ultrasonic wave in a state where the tip surface of the sound propagation medium faces the welding portion.

A non-destructive weld testing system for testing spot welds includes a weld monitoring tool monitoring at least one weld characteristic of the spot welds and generating weld data based on the at least one weld characteristic; a weld analysis tool analyzing the weld data to determine a weld quality of each spot weld based on analysis criteria; and a non-destructive weld testing tool configured to test spot welds. The weld testing system causes the weld testing tool to target testing of spot welds determined by the weld analysis tool to have a weld quality beyond a threshold weld quality. The weld testing tool may be a robot-mounted phased array transducer generating weld test data based on testing results and provides feedback to the weld analysis tool correlating to the weld test data. The weld analysis tool updates the analysis criteria based on the weld test data.