Composites CRFP, AL-CRFP and HoneyComb
Composite materials, particularly within the aerospace industry, have been a primary area of application for air-coupled (and dry-coupled) test methods. The following are among the examples of results from inspection of composite parts.
These are all through transmission C‑scans obtaining results which will be reasonably familiar to users of conventional ultrasonic testing, however many production inspections can conveniently use a plate wave configuration, giving simple “go/no go” quality assessments. This has been particularly applied to pultruded composites.
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Fig. 9: Scan of part of an aircraft brake disk, dark area appears to be disbonded.| Fig. 10: Impact damage in a carbon laminate panel. | Fig. 11: Bonded foam panel, (test at 50 kHz).
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Fig. 12: Scan of a complex composite satellite part (carbon/carbon & carbon/honeycomb). | Fig. 13: As previous figure, tested at a higher gain to optimize results on honeycomb section. | Fig. 14: Light weight armor panel, showing disbonding after impact.
| These are all through transmission C scans obtaining results which will be reasonably familiar to users of conventional ultrasonic testing, however many production inspections can conveniently use a plate wave configuration, giving simple "go/no go" quality assessments. This has been particularly applied to pultruded composites.
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Robotized Air-Coupled Ultrasonic Testing System - Japan
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