Acoustic microscopy has been used historically in the pursuit of two distinctly different diagnostic functions that are useful in material characterization as well as in the inspection of layered and composite structures. These functions, imaging and metrology, are completely nondestructive and the latter factor makes this generic technology a cost-effective tool not only in the development of new components and new process-control functions but also in on-line production testing of expensive parts. In this paper quantitative imaging of plastic deformation is described.