DEVELOPMENT OF 3D PHASED ARRAY SYSTEM “3D FOCUS‐UT”

Ultrasonic phased array inspection systems have been used the in various industrial fields recently. For instance, power plants have used these systems to maintain their reliability. The phased array is advantageous because it improves efficiency by imaging the inside of the test subject. This inspection image is obtained by electronic scanning of a focused ultrasonic beam using a phased array sensor. We have developed a 3‐dimensional volume inspection technology to make further efficiency and accuracy improvements in ultrasonic inspections. This study presents the innovative 3D phased array inspection system “3D Focus‐UT” for 3D volume inspection. This system employs (1) a 3D ray‐trace simulator to set up the delay time for the elements in the array sensor and the delay pattern for 3D volume scanning; (2) high sensitivity phased array equipment that has a 256 ch pulsar/receiver to drive/receive a 2D matrix array transducer simultaneously; and (3) high‐speed 3D data processing software. The software conve...