Patents Assigned to Olympus America, Inc.
  • Patent number: 11683376
    Abstract: The invention relates to an industrial testing device communicating with a data center located in a remote computer network, such as the cloud. Disclosed is a method of registering the device to the cloud and specifying the geographical location of the data center. The method includes selecting a data center from a list of available data centers based on regulations specific to a device type of the industrial testing device. Features are configured for communication between the device and the selected data center.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 8, 2021
    Date of Patent: June 20, 2023
    Assignee: Olympus America Inc.
    Inventor: Ehab Ghabour
  • Patent number: 11549918
    Abstract: 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.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 18, 2018
    Date of Patent: January 10, 2023
    Assignee: Olympus America Inc.
    Inventors: Benjamin Spay, Simon Alain, Martin Dupuis, Sylvain Sauvageau, Francois Houde
  • Patent number: 11415710
    Abstract: Disclosed is an electronic system for resetting the voltage of a charge-sensitive pre-amplifier having input from an X-ray detector and output to an ADC. The pre-amplifier gain is increased so that the RMS ADC noise is less than 1% of a representative digitized X-ray signal. The reset logic is configured to avoid loss of X-ray counts and to prevent the pre-amplifier output being outside the allowable input range of the ADC. Reset is initiated when the pre-amplifier output rises above an upper level, which is below the maximum allowable ADC input. Reset is also initiated when a pile-up event is detected, provided that such reset will not cause the pre-amplifier output to fall below the minimum allowable ADC input. At each reset a known amount of charge is removed from the pre-amplifier, and the reset time is continuously adjusted to ensure that the charge amount does not drift.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 28, 2016
    Date of Patent: August 16, 2022
    Assignee: Olympus America Inc.
    Inventor: Marc Battyani
  • Patent number: 11354007
    Abstract: A diagram based visual procedure note writing, in one aspect, presents an image representing a structure on a user interface display. A plurality of objects is presented on the user interface display. Responsive to an object being placed onto the image of the structure, metadata associated with the object is updated based on region information associated with a position where the object is placed onto the image. The updated metadata is presented on the user interface display. A note is composed based on the updated metadata.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 7, 2015
    Date of Patent: June 7, 2022
    Assignee: Olympus America, Inc.
    Inventor: Rami H. Khouri
  • Patent number: 11327053
    Abstract: A system for non-destructively inspecting tubes is provided. The system may include a tank filled with a fluid, e.g., water. The tank may define an axial passage within it for tube insertion, and the tank may include an opening to the axial passage. A transducer probe may be disposed inside the tank and oriented toward the opening to the axial passage. The system may also include a movable seal including a chamber, configured to move axially in the axial passage, and a membrane positioned in the opening of the tank. During inspection, an acoustic pathway may be provided between the transducer probe and the tube, the pathway including fluid in the tank, the membrane, and fluid in the chamber.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 12, 2020
    Date of Patent: May 10, 2022
    Assignee: Olympus America Inc.
    Inventor: Benoit Lepage
  • Patent number: 11249053
    Abstract: Disclosed is a beam overlap verification system and method for phased array ultrasonic inspection. A scan plan for the ultrasonic inspection defines a suitable probe, wedge and calibration block having machined defects for the geometry to be inspected, and makes a beam definition which defines a set of ultrasonic beams emitted by the phased array. An intersection amplitude unit records the response amplitudes from each defect at predetermined intersection points of adjacent beam pairs as the probe and wedge are manually scanned across the calibration block. An overlap verification module determines the ?6 dB overlap of all adjacent beam pairs which are relevant to the geometry to be inspected, and verifies that the beam overlap conforms to the required coverage according to the ASME or other relevant codes. In this way, coverage is experimentally verified during calibration prior to inspection of a known geometry, such as a weld.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 18, 2019
    Date of Patent: February 15, 2022
    Assignee: Olympus America Inc.
    Inventor: Benoit Lepage
  • Patent number: 11223684
    Abstract: The invention relates to an industrial testing device communicating with a data center located in a remote computer network, such as the cloud. Disclosed is a method of registering the device to the cloud and specifying the geographical location of the data center. The method includes selecting a data center from a list of available data centers based on regulations specific to a device type of the industrial testing device. Features are configured for communication between the device and the selected data center.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 18, 2020
    Date of Patent: January 11, 2022
    Assignee: Olympus America Inc.
    Inventor: Ehab Ghabour
  • Patent number: 11199525
    Abstract: Disclosed is an ultrasonic bar or tube inspection assembly comprising two centering assemblies and two inspection cassettes. The centering assemblies are designed to guide the bar under inspection with rollers disposed on symmetrically arranged pivot arms activated by a single centering ring. A pressure plate is designed to push the probe cassettes to be stacked tightly and concentrically onto the centering assembly. The inspection probe cassettes, with the accompanying design of engagement grooves and ridges, and a pressure plate, may be easily removed from the bar inspection assembly for maintenance operations.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 15, 2019
    Date of Patent: December 14, 2021
    Assignee: Olympus America Inc.
    Inventors: David-Alexandre Roy Chevalier, Christian Gagnon-Lachance
  • Patent number: 11131617
    Abstract: A system for analyzing a fluid includes or uses a movable flow cell assembly being disposed in an analysis location on a wall of an analysis instrument and being configured to be retained by a locking assembly on a first surface of the wall. The system includes a probe head assembly located on an opposed second surface of the wall, the probe head assembly to direct an X-ray source to analyze the fluid in a static state in the movable flow cell assembly or in a flow mode through the movable flow cell assembly. The movable flow cell assembly and the probe head assembly are in electro-magnetic communication for elemental analysis of the fluid using the X-ray source when the movable flow cell assembly is retained by the locking assembly on the first surface of the wall.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 21, 2020
    Date of Patent: September 28, 2021
    Assignee: Olympus America Inc.
    Inventors: Gerard Colclough, Steven W. Chin, Ronald Scott Collicutt, Alex Thurston, Michael Murray, Ernest Moseley, Jacob LaRocca, Joel W. Kenyon
  • Patent number: 11035829
    Abstract: A dual probe assembly comprises dual transducers which are free to rotate over a desired range of roof angles required for different inspection applications. The roof angle for a particular application is defined by attaching the dual probe assembly to a wedge assembly having an upper contact surface which defines the roof angle of the transducers.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 27, 2017
    Date of Patent: June 15, 2021
    Assignee: Olympus America Inc.
    Inventor: Jeffrey Wells
  • Patent number: 11029289
    Abstract: Disclosed is an apparatus and method for TFM post-processing of a FMC or HMC matrix acquired with an ultrasonic array probe. Post-processing is performed by calculating TFM beam forming amplitudes using round-trip delays to a focal point lying at depth d on a line at angle ? within the test object. Based on the beam forming amplitudes over a range of values of d within the imaging volume, a calculated A-scan is derived, which is equivalent to the response A-scan produced in conventional phased array imaging, but has the advantage of being focused at all points along the line. By post-calculation of calculated A-scans over a range of angles ? within the imaging volume, an imaging method is derived which is readily adapted to existing codes based on conventional A-scan imaging.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 20, 2017
    Date of Patent: June 8, 2021
    Assignee: Olympus America Inc.
    Inventors: Jason Habermehl, Benoit Lepage
  • Patent number: 10982955
    Abstract: Disclosed is a system and method for ultrasonic measurement of the average diameter and surface profile of a tube. A calibration block is used to calibrate the average tube diameter, and a correction is applied to account for any temperature difference of the couplant between calibration and test measurements. By using a linear probe, or a single probe with a finely pitched helicoidal scan, errors in diameter measurement due to presence of surface pits may be compensated.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 12, 2018
    Date of Patent: April 20, 2021
    Assignee: Olympus America Inc.
    Inventors: Jinchi Zhang, Nicolas Badeau
  • Patent number: 10962358
    Abstract: Disclosed is a system and method for ultrasonic measurement of the average diameter and roundness profile of a tube. A roundness algorithm represents the angular dependence of the tube surface profile as a sum of Fourier components, each component being a harmonic representing an integer number of undulations per revolution, with “0” (the first harmonic) corresponds to an average circle associated with the tube outer surface. A calibration block is used to calibrate the first harmonic, representing the average tube diameter.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 12, 2018
    Date of Patent: March 30, 2021
    Assignees: Olympus America Inc., Cudd Pressure Control, Inc.
    Inventors: Jinchi Zhang, James David Glascock
  • Patent number: 10908122
    Abstract: Disclosed is a phased array ultrasound total focusing method in which the ultrasound energy is transmitted as plane waves and the response signals are processed as plane waves. The processing is adaptively corrected to account for geometric variations in the probes and the part being inspected. Methods are disclosed for measuring the geometric variations of the probes and the part.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 29, 2017
    Date of Patent: February 2, 2021
    Assignee: Olympus America Inc.
    Inventors: Benoit Lepage, Guillaume Painchaud-April, Jason Habermehl
  • Patent number: 10890565
    Abstract: Inventive features of a portable ultrasonic phased array test instrument are disclosed. The instrument has a battery rack that can be repurposed to host a re-programming module for testing and re-programming electronic components.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 19, 2018
    Date of Patent: January 12, 2021
    Assignee: Olympus America Inc.
    Inventors: Benjamin Spay, Francois Houde, Christian Gauvin, Jean-Sebastien Langlois, Eric Bharucha
  • Patent number: 10883970
    Abstract: An ultrasound scanner assembly for inspection of pipes and pipe elbows comprises a frame and a wedge. Four wheels are attached to the frame, there being a front wheel pair and a rear wheel pair. In order to maintain stable positioning of the probe assembly while scanning, the wheels are magnetic, thereby establishing a magnetic stabilizing force between the wheels and the pipe or pipe elbow. The magnetic stabilizing force is larger for pipes of small diameter than for pipes of large diameter.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 24, 2018
    Date of Patent: January 5, 2021
    Assignee: Olympus America Inc.
    Inventors: Benjamin Spay, Sylvain Sauvageau
  • Patent number: 10785303
    Abstract: The invention relates to an industrial testing device communicating with a data center located in a remote computer network, such as the cloud. Disclosed is a method of registering the device to the cloud and specifying the geographical location of the data center. The method includes selecting a data center from a list of available data centers based on regulations specific to a device type of the industrial testing device. Features are configured for communication between the device and the selected data center.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 30, 2018
    Date of Patent: September 22, 2020
    Assignee: OLYMPUS AMERICA INC.
    Inventor: Ehab Ghabour
  • Patent number: 10775346
    Abstract: Disclosed is an apparatus and method for generating virtual inspection channels mid-way between the physical inspection channels of an eddy current array probe, thereby reducing the coverage loss and improving defect sizing and imaging. The method is based upon a calibration to determine the mid-channel coverage loss for parallel defects having their long axis parallel to the scanning direction. Based on the coverage loss measurement, a vector analysis system is constructed enabling generation of virtual channel signals which are available for processing in the same way as physical channels, with impedance plane representation including real and/or imaginary signal components. The system differentiates between parallel and perpendicular defects and employs different algorithms to generate virtual channel signals for parallel and perpendicular defect orientations.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 30, 2017
    Date of Patent: September 15, 2020
    Assignee: OLYMPUS AMERICA INC.
    Inventor: Benoit Lepage
  • Patent number: D909900
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 31, 2019
    Date of Patent: February 9, 2021
    Assignee: Olympus America Inc.
    Inventors: Sébastien Larose, François Houde, Benjamin Spay, Christian Gauvin
  • Patent number: D969643
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 13, 2021
    Date of Patent: November 15, 2022
    Assignee: Olympus America Inc.
    Inventors: Sebastien LaRose, Christian Gauvin, Benjamin Spay, Francois Houde