An ultrasound probe assembly comprises a housing and a wedge, wherein wedges configured for pipes of different diameter may be easily interchanged in the assembly. Four wheels are attached to the housing, there being a front wheel pair and a rear wheel pair. Wheels of each pair are positioned on either side of a linear probe array, wherein the distance between wheels in each pair in a direction perpendicular to the array length is as small as possible. A position encoder monitors the position of the assembly during scanning, and a push lock switch is used to disable the encoder and the data acquisition while indexing to a new scan position on the pipe.

The disclosure relates to a control method of a probe with ultrasonic phased array transducers in a hinge array, and belongs to the technical field of ultrasonic detecting. The control method includes the steps: firstly, fixing a part under test, making a central piezoelectric array element of piezoelectric array elements for the ultrasonic phased array transducers in the hinge array make contact with a surface of the part under test, and then fixing a fixed support; before detection is started, driving the hinge array through voice coil motors to make the piezoelectric array elements completely fit the surface of the part under test, wherein the number of the piezoelectric array elements is 2N+1 (N=1, 2, 3, 4 and 5), and different values of N are selected according to a size of the part under test; with the value of pressure of the central piezoelectric array element as a standard and difference values between values of pressures of other piezoelectric array elements and the value of pressure of the central piezoelectric array element as control signals of respective corresponding voice coil motor coils, controlling output rods to drive the hinge array; keeping the values of pressures of all the piezoelectric array elements consistent by means of an incremental digital PID control method; and then realizing deflecting and focusing of ultrasonic waves by means of a time delay rule for ultrasonic detecting, thereby detecting parts under test with planar or curved surfaces.

An ultrasonic phased array transducer device with a two-dimensional hinge array structure belongs to equipment in the technical field of ultrasonic detection. A connecting rod is fixedly connected to a fixed support and a two-dimensional hinge array respectively. Voice coil motors are symmetrically arranged in a shape of the British “Union Jack” with the connecting rod as a center, and are fixedly connected to the fixed support. Force output rods are respectively connected to voice coil motor coils and the upper surfaces of array units. Piezoelectric array elements are fixedly connected to the lower surfaces of all the array units. The numbers of the voice coil motors and the force output rods are 2N (N=4, 8, 12, 16, 20), the number of the piezoelectric array elements is 2N+1, and different N values are selected according to the sizes of workpieces to be detected. In the disclosure, by adjusting the current of each voice coil motor coil, the corresponding force output rod generates displacement to drive the two-dimensional hinge array unit to generate displacement, so as to push out and retract the hinge array unit and the piezoelectric array element fixedly connected below and drive the two-dimensional hinge array to generate deformation, so that the piezoelectric array elements fully fit with the surface of the workpiece to be detected. The disclosure can be applied to detection of the workpieces to be detected with flat surfaces, curved surfaces or spherical surfaces.

An automated device for non-destructive testing for the detection of defects of a complex tubular product includes at least one ultrasound transducer arranged to emit an ultrasound beam having an emission orientation. The automated device further includes control and processing electronics configured to define at least one ultrasound burst parameter as a function of the longitudinal and/or circumferential position of the ultrasound emission means, so as to detect defects in the tube wall. The at least one parameter being chosen from the burst emission orientation, the gain or the position of the temporal filter.

Using various techniques, a position of a probe assembly of a non-destructive inspection system, such as a phase array ultrasonic testing (PAUT) system, can be determined using the acoustic capability of the probe assembly and an inertial measurement unit (IMU) sensor, e.g., including a gyroscope and an accelerometer, without relying on a complex encoding mechanism. The IMU sensor can provide an estimate of a current location of the probe assembly, which can be confirmed by the probe assembly, using an acoustic signal. In this manner, the data acquired from the IMU sensor and the probe assembly can be used in a complementary manner.

An apparatus and a method are provided for detecting one or more objects under a surface of a water body. The method includes transmitting one or more ultrasonic waves into the water body according to a transmit beam pattern. The method further includes determining a bottom characteristic of a bottom of the water body and dynamically adjusting the transmit beam pattern, based on the bottom characteristic of the water body.

Systems and methods for tracking the location of a non-destructive inspection (NDI) scanner using images of a target object acquired by the NDI scanner. The system includes a frame, an NDI scanner supported by the frame, a system configured to enable motorized movement of the frame, and a computer system communicatively coupled to receive sensor data from the NDI scanner and track the location of the NDI scanner. The NDI scanner includes a two-dimensional (2-D) array of sensors. Subsurface depth sensor data is repeatedly (recurrently, continually) acquired by and output from the 2-D sensor array while at different locations on a surface of the target object. The resulting 2-D scan image sequence is fed into an image processing and feature point comparison module that is configured to track the location of the scanner relative to the target object using virtual features visible in the acquired scan images.

An acoustic technique can be used for performing non-destructive testing. For example, a method for acoustic evaluation of a target can include generating respective acoustic transmission events via selected transmitting ones of a plurality of electroacoustic transducers, and in response to the respective acoustic transmission events, receiving respective acoustic echo signals using other receiving ones of the plurality of electroacoustic transducers, and coherently summing representations of the respective received acoustic echo signals to generate a pixel or voxel value corresponding to a specified spatial location of the target. Such summation can include weighting contributions from the respective representations to suppress contributions from acoustic propagation paths outside a specified angular range with respect to a surface on or within the target, such as to provide an acoustic path-filtered total focusing method (PF-TFM).

A moving inspection device capable of realizing significant size reduction/weight reduction without affecting the inspection performance for an inspection target, a moving inspection method, and a method for manufacturing a steel material. A moving inspection device includes: a moving inspection device body configured to inspect an inspection target for defects while moving over a surface of the inspection target; and water supply devices separate from the body and configured to supply water required for the inspection onto the surface of the inspection target. The body is installed with a flow adjustment plate configured to push out the water supplied onto the surface of the inspection target from the water supply devices in the advancing direction and form streamlines for supplying the water between inspection sensors configured to inspect the inspection target for defects and the surface of the inspection target simultaneously with the movement of the body.

A system and method passively normalize an ultrasonic dry coupled wheel probe as the probe traverses a surface of a structure to inspect the structure, such as a flat structure or a curved pipe. At least a pair of arms are configured to passively maintain normalization of the probe in a detection direction normal to the surface.