Ultrasonic test head and its application for controlling changing shapes of a work piece during its manufacture.

摘要

In order to monitor work pieces of any shape, such as panels made of a composite material, use is made of a test head (10) comprising a strip (12) made of an elastic material into which ultrasonic transducers (18) are introduced. These transducers are aligned and operate by reflection. The strip carries contact studs (22, 24) which are brought to bear on the surface of the work piece to be monitored. This deforms the strip and orients each of the transducers perpendicular to the surface. For work pieces with non-uniform shape, this ensures uniform quality control at the same time as a reduction in testing time. Precise monitoring of the variation in the structure of work pieces in process of manufacture is also made possible. The transducers are advantageously mounted on the strip in such a way that they can be removed. Such mounting is achieved with fixing devices such as screws and clips made of metal wire.