Development of a Manipulator Free Mobile Ultrasonic C-Scan System

Abstract

Ultrasonic C-scan inspections have been used in various industrial fields. Usually, conventional ultrasonic C-scan systems have several mechanical manipulating axis controlled by a computer or an electronic device. These systems are suitable for the high resolution and inspection quality. But they are too heavy and bulky to carry in general, and many industrial fields do not require higher resolution than a hundred micron order. To take care of such a need, in this study we developed an ultrasonic C-scan system that does not have any mechanical manipulator to transport ultrasonic transducers. This system, named "M-Scanner", adopts an electro-magnetic position tracking sensor instead of mechanical manipulating axes in order to trace the transducer position. Furthermore, this new system is portable and has a reasonable construction cost along with practical inspection resolution required in many industrial field inspections.