Ultrasonic Testing

Ultrasonic testing is a well-established, highly tailorable technology that uses high frequency sound waves to conduct inspections. Within this Ultrasonic testing umbrella, there are a range of conventional and advanced NDT techniques with broad capability - from the accurate finding and sizing of internal features, through to more rapid scanning approaches which provide high productivity assessment outcomes.

Within the conventional NDT family, Ultrasonic testing includes Manual Ultrasonic testing and Semi-Automated Ultrasonic testing. Manual Ultrasonic testing uses handheld probes and ultrasonic units to assess for the presence of defects in a variety of material types.

Semi-Automated Ultrasonic testing uses scanning frames and machines to rapidly scan large surface areas and provide an accurate indication of internal defects. These defects can include cracking, corrosion and remaining wall thickness.

Ultrasonic testing has excellent capabilities for determining:

• Component thickness
• Finding and sizing cracking, even in complicated component geometries
• Assessing the extent of corrosion and corrosion loss
• Finding welding, casting and manufacturing defects and assessing the compliance of welds with the applicable standards

Manual Ultrasonic testing is used as a condition assessment technique for a variety of components and structures. It can be used to ensure compliance to standards such as AS, ISO, ASME along with other international standards.

Semi-Automated Ultrasonic testing is used in components where the continuous scanning of surfaces provides integrity knowledge and assessment, along with defect detection and critical sizing. 

Manual Ultrasonic testing is able to accurately provide a remaining wall thickness assessment as well as corrosion mapping, and Semi-Automated Ultrasonic testing is capable of working with many different material types.

Advantages of Ultrasonic Testing

Ultrasonic testing has a host of advantages. As a non-destructive method, there is reduced disruption, minimised need for moving assets and hazardous exposure. In many instances, Ultrasonic testing can be used from one side of an asset in order to get highly accurate results. It is also capable of detecting extremely small flaws.

Ultrasonic testing has many advanced applications. Listed under Advanced NDT, Restricted Access Phased Array (RAPA), Long Range Ultrasonic testing (LRUT), Electro-Magnetic Acoustic Transducers (EMAT) and Time of Flight Diffraction (TOFD) are some of the advanced Ultrasonic techniques.