Evaluation of an Automated Ultrasonic Scanner
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As part of the “Ultrasonics as an Alternative to Radiography for Weld Inspection (UT/RT) Program”, an evaluation of computer-assisted ultrasonics was performed. Briefly, this evaluation consisted of inspecting 33 UT/RT test plates, 650 feet of welds being fabricated in new construction, and 542 inches of welds in overhaul. Eight Navy UT inspectors and one “experienced” operator of the computer-assisted ultrasonic system inspected the test plates using the P-scan system with a manual weld scanner. Additionally, the test plates were inspected by manual ultrasonics and radiography (using an Iridium source with Kodak type AA film). Reference 1 summarizes the procedures that were used for this work and reports on the detection and disposition reliability for these inspection techniques. The UT/RT Program indicated that the use of computer-assisted ultrasonics would offer several qualitative benefits over conventional ultrasonics, including: a more repeatable and reproducible inspection, less operator dependency, better evidence of weld coverage, the potential for improved consistency of length measurement, and an automatic, hard-copy record of the inspection. Furthermore, it was suggested that the use of computer-assisted ultrasonics performed with an automated scanner would offer potential gains in terms of reproducibility, economics and operator independency. Since only a manual weld scanner was evaluated for the UT/RT Program, it was necessary to evaluate the capabilities of an automated scanner. Therefore, the work reported herein was performed to determine the ability of an automated ultrasonic scanner to: (1) operate in a shipyard environment and (2) repeatably detect weld discontinuities.