A method of manufacturing an article by hot pressing and ultrasonically inspecting the article

摘要

A method of manufacturing an article (32) by hot pressing and ultrasonically inspecting the article (32) comprises forming and filling a canister (80) with powder material and evacuating and sealing the canister (80). Heat and pressure are applied to the canister (80) to consolidate the powder material to form the article (32). The article (32) within the canister (80) is ultrasonically inspected by moving a transducer (124) over the whole of the canister (80). The position of an interface between the article (32) and the canister (80), and the thickness of the canister (80), at each position on the surface of the canister (80) and if there are defects within the article (32) are determined. The canister (80) is then removed from the article (32) by machining the canister (80) using a machining tool (148), the movement of the tool (148) is controlled such that at each position of the canister (80) the tool (148) removes the determined thickness of the canister (80) for the corresponding position on the surface of the canister (80).