A new ultrasonic phased array testing system for dissimilar welds

The presented work is based on the new PCUS Pro® ultrasonic Phased Array system developed at Fraunhofer IZFP Dresden. For testing of dissimilar welds, the hardware and software of the PCUS Pro® Array is combined with special imaging algorithms derived from laser vibrometer measurements of wave propagation inside the real weld. With a detailed time-of-flight weld model for the focal law calculator it is possible to partly compensate for beam distortions and defocusing caused by the anisotropic and heterogeneous microstructure of the material. This leads to better images with more precise defect localizations. This paper presents and discusses the successful application of the equipment in a test setup by one of our customers.