Advanced Methods for Product Control and Process Monitoring

Ultrasonic non-destructive evaluation (NDE) is an effective method for product material structure characterisation and defect identification, which is useful both to verify the material conditions before destructive testing procedures and to evaluate products before or during service in a thoroughly non-destructive manner. UT NDE is applicable to different materials as metals, metal alloys, polymers and composites for high precision measurement of thickness and internal defect characterisation through UT image generation and analysis. A new development of UT methodologies is represented by UT based Reverse Engineering, offering the advantages of being applicable in environments where touch probe contact or laser impingement is undesirable or impractical, capable to detect surface features also on part zones that are not reachable by a contact probe or are out of the line-of-sight of a laser / light beam, such as inaccessible surfaces or internal cavities in hollow components. The UT NDE system developed at LAPT comprises various mechanical displacement systems, including a 6-axis anthropomorphous robotic arm for 3D complex geometries, advanced UT instrumentations, and custom made software packages (ECUS Inspection©, RoboTEST©) for UT signal processing, image generation and analysis. Example applications of UT NDE and Reverse Engineering include: Insulated Gate Bipolar Transistor (IGBT) assembly devices for railways application; brazed Cu modules for particle accelerators; turbine blades for aircraft engines; advanced composite material components for aerospace applications.