Investigating Variables in Thermographic Composite Inspections

摘要

The cost effective detection of flaws in manufactured and assembled structures is a major objective of the aerospace industry today. With the advent of robotics, image processing, knowledge-based systems, and new inspection techniques, the conventional nondestructive evaluation (NDE) techniques can be replaced with faster and more economical techniques with no sacrifice of quality. Thermography, the use of infrared imaging, is an example of an inspection technology that has shown the potential of a cost savings of 60 to 75 percent over ultrasonics and radiography (Bouvier, 1993; Dods et al., 1990).