Eddy current defect-detecting system for determining an inner or outer defect and its depth in metal tubes

摘要

An eddy current defect-detecting system for a metal tube comprises a detector including test coils movable axially through the metal tube for detecting as an impedance variation a variation in an eddy current produced due to a defect present in the metal tube, an oscillator for exciting the detector at a high frequency, a phase adjuster responsive to an oscillated output from the oscillator for adjusting the phase of the oscillated output to produce a first control signal, a phase shifter responsive to the first control signal from the phase adjuster for issuing a second control signal which is 90 DEG out of phase with the first control signal, two phase detectors for producing a first defect signal by effecting first phase detection on an output signal from the detector with the first control signal and a second defect signal by effecting second phase detection on the output signal from the detector with the second control signal, an arithmetic processing unit for electrically reading amplitudes of the first and second defect signals from the two phase detectors to determine phase angles thereof indicative of whether the defect is on an inner surface or an outer surface and of the depth of the defect, and a recorder for separately recording signals from the arithmetic processing unit which are representative of the defect on the inner surface and the depth thereof or the defect on the outer surface and the depth thereof.