Non-destructive inspection is an important technique for the maintenance and assurance of the quality of structures and its importance has increased with the increase in sheet thickness that has accompanied the increasing size of buildings and with the increased use of fault-tolerant designs, which tolerate internal flaws. With ever lighter transportation machines, on the other hand, sheets have become progressively thinner and there is an increasing demand for non-destructive testing of internal defects of thin-sheet structures, a previously unknown application. Radiographic testing (RT) and ultrasonic testing (UT) are the two typical methods of non-destructive testing of the interiors of welded joints and, due to its ability to detect and reveal dangerous defects in the sheet thickness direction, ultrasonic testing is increasingly preferred to radiographic testing. The use of ultrasonic testing brings with it issues around objective recording of test results and the shortening of testing time. In this article, I discuss the automation of ultrasonic inspection, time of flight diffraction (TOFD) and phased array ultrasonic inspection, new methods of ultrasonic inspection, and the combination of these with new MT methods.
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