Abstract: A shielded eddy current coil probe is formed on a printed circuit board and comprises a first coil component forming a test coil and a second coil component forming an active shielding coil. The test coil and the active shielding coil are concentrically arranged and the number of coil windings in the active shielding coil and the field direction thereof are configured to limit the induced field or the sensed field in the test object to the footprint area of the test coil on the test object. Multiple sets of test coils with active shielding coils can be provided on the same or different layers of the printed circuit board to realize different driver, receiver and combined driver/receiver coil configurations.
Abstract: Alerting a user of a material inspection device to a change in thickness of a material being inspected is disclosed. A thickness offset is determined from calibration information. The calibration information identifies a time of flight of a pulse through a reference sample similar in composition to a material to be inspected. The thickness offset indicates when a thickness of a material being inspected differs from a thickness of the reference sample. A calibration thickness alarm is set, the calibration thickness alarm corresponding to the thickness offset. A change in thickness of the material being inspected is detected. The calibration thickness alarm is engaged to alert the user of the inspection device of a detected change in thickness of the material being inspected.
Type:
Grant
Filed:
June 3, 2009
Date of Patent:
May 8, 2012
Assignee:
Olympus NDT Inc.
Inventors:
Steven Abe LaBreck, Paul Joseph DeAngelo, Michael Drummy
Abstract: An apparatus for performing ultrasonic inspection of an object, during one measurement on the object, triggers a sequence of excitations of the probe system and receives a sequence of substantially identical echo signals reflected from the object, and further scales each echo signal to different degrees to increase and extend the dynamic range of the echo signals. An A/D converter is then used to digitize the scaled signal sequentially in a manner which dispenses the need for using numerous A/D converters and the associated filters. The digitized signal samples are then combined to produce a single digital output in a manner that is not over-flowed and with desirable resolution. A sequence of successive acquisitions of the scaled signal with the highest sensitivity are averaged to reduce system noise.
Abstract: A system and method for carrying out non-destructive testing and inspection of test objects to assess their structural integrity uses a calibration module configured to provide V-Path time of flight (TOF) correction data over a plurality of object thickness points, obtained from an object or objects having known thicknesses using the same physical probe as is used for the inspection measurements. When a probe launches acoustical waves into a test object and an instrument and a control system compute a time of flight value of the acoustical waves launched by the probe, the pre-obtained V-Path TOF correction data is used to correct the measured time of flight computed by the instrument.
Type:
Grant
Filed:
December 4, 2009
Date of Patent:
April 17, 2012
Assignee:
Olympus NDT, Inc.
Inventors:
Paul Joseph DeAngelo, Steven Abe LaBreck
Abstract: Disclosed is an improved orthogonal eddy current probe with at least three coils, each of the coils is wound across the two facing sides of an at least six-sided right polygonal prism, such as a hexagonal core. At each time interval, two of the three coils are used as driver coils, being charged simultaneously with electric current driven in coherent directions to induce a combined eddy current and one of the coils is used as a receiver coil to sense the eddy current, with the combined eddy current to be orthogonal to the receiver coil. Each coil alternates to be one of the driver coils or the receiver coil at a predetermined switching sequence and a predetermined switching frequency during consecutive time intervals. The eddy current probe as disclosed provides the advantages of inspecting a test surface for flaws of any flaw orientation with one pass of scan, providing sufficient sensitivity and desirable noise cancellation in all directions.
Abstract: The invention herein disclosed provides a 2D coil and a method of using the 2D wound EC sensor for reproducing the Eddy Current Testing (ECT) response of a prior art 3D orthogonal sensor. The 3D orthogonal sensor is conventionally wound onto a 3D core, with at least some of the surfaces being un-parallel to the surface be inspected. Using the herein disclosed 2D configuration allows the use of printed circuit board technologies for the manufacturing of these EC sensors. The herein disclosed method and the associated 2D EC sensors are particularly useful for reproducing the EC effect of conventional orthogonal probe arrays.
Abstract: A device is disclosed for performing non-destructive inspection and testing (NDT/NDI) of an elongated test object, wherein the inspection system includes: a test object conveyor for conveying the test object along a longitudinal conveyance path; a probe assembly including phased-array probes, the probe assembly being configured to induce signals in the test object and sense echoes reflected from the test object; a probe assembly conveyor configured to movably support the probe assembly, to move the probe assembly on a circumferential path about the test object; and a control system coupled to the test object conveyor and to the probe assembly conveyor and configured to allow data acquisition by and from the phased-array probes while, simultaneously, the test object moves along the longitudinal path and the phased-array probes move on the circumferential path.
Abstract: An apparatus for performing ultrasonic inspection of an object, during one measurement on the object, triggers a sequence of excitations of the probe system and receives a sequence of substantially identical echo signals reflected from the object, and further scales each echo signal to different degrees to increase and extend the dynamic range of the echo signals. An A/D converter is then used to digitize the scaled signal sequentially in a manner which dispenses the need for using numerous A/D converters and the associated filters. The digitized signal samples are then combined to produce a single digital output in a manner that is not over-flowed and with desirable resolution. A sequence of successive acquisitions of the scaled signal with the highest sensitivity are averaged to reduce system noise.
Abstract: Disclosed is an improved ultrasonic probe for Internal Rotating Inspection System (called IRIS) for inspecting tube-like structures from the inside of the tubes. The improved design deploys a rotor with rotor blades and a slotted stator located close to the emitting face of the transducer, to direct the flow of water such that air bubbles are carried away from a zone immediately in front of the transducer emitting face. Inspection accuracy and efficiency is significantly improved when air bubbles are effectively removed.
Abstract: A user configured measurement display system and method for a non-destructive testing device and instrument (NDT/NDI) with high input data rate is disclosed. The system and the method provide the means for NDT/NDI instruments display measurement values that satisfies user designated measurement criterion occurring during any measurement time intervals (MTIs). The present disclosure overcomes the shortcomings of conventional ways of picking and displaying measurement values at fixed MTIs, by which the values truly satisfying the measurement criterion that occurs at random MTIs (other than scheduled MTIs) are often skipped.