AUTOMATIC CARRIAGE ALIGNMENT

摘要

An ultrasonic aligning device for laterally aligning a rail testing device with respect to a rail (10) has an ultrasonic transducer (18) formed of an array (18) of closely spaced ultrasonic element s (20.1-20.18), with center to center distances between elements (20.1-20.18) being selected to determine incremental lateral positions of the array (18) relative to the rail (10). The ultrasonic elements (20.1-20.18) are selectively actuated to cause the generation of ultrasonic beams towards the base portions (22) of the rail. Reflections from the base portions (22), are detected to produc e reflection signals representative of the incidence of the ultrasonic beam onto said base portion (22). The reflection signals are processed by a reflections analyzer for a determination of the lateral offset of the ultrasonic array (18) relative to the rail (10). A position signal indicative thereof of produced and used to laterally displace the array (18) to achieve a desired lateral alignment of the rail testing device with the rail (18).