IMPROVED CHARACTERIZATION AND CLASSIFICATION OF SPOT WELDS BY ULTRASONIC DIAGOSTIC TECHNIQUES

摘要

A system for ultrasonic examination of spot welds comprising a probe, a computer, and a display screen, the computer configured for spot weld analysis by appropriate analytical software, the probe for coupling to a spot weld via a couplant, wherein the probe comprises a two dimensional array of sensors that is each configured to conduct an A scan analysis, thereby providing a color pixel indicating weld quality in terms of parameters selected from the group of size, shape, voids, upper sheet-weld nugget interface strength and lower sheet-weld nugget interface strength, such that the two dimensional array of sensors produces a two dimensional pixilated image indicating the weld quality in terms of selected parameters.