Battelle Memorial Institute

George J Schuster

James R Skorpik

Morris S Good

Robert V Harris

Steven R Doctor

Susan L Crawford

One form of the present invention is a technique for interrogating a sample with ultrasound which includes: generating ultrasonic energy data corresponding to a volume of a sample and performing a synthetic aperture focusing technique on the ultrasonic energy data. The synthetic aperture focusing technique includes: defining a number of hyperbolic surfaces which extend through the volume at different depths and a corresponding number of multiple element accumulation vectors, performing a focused element calculation procedure for a group of vectors which are representative of the interior of a designated aperture, performing another focused element calculation procedure for vectors corresponding to the boundary of the aperture, and providing an image corresponding to features of the sample in accordance with the synthetic aperture focusing technique.

Apparatus, systems, and methods for ultrasound synthetic aperature focusing

The invention is an ultrasonic surface hardness depth measurement apparatus and method permitting rapid determination of hardness depth of shafts, rods, tubes and other cylindrical parts. The apparatus of the invention has a part handler, sensor, ultrasonic electronics component, computer, computer instruction sets, and may include a display screen. The part handler has a vessel filled with a couplant, and a part rotator for rotating a cylindrical metal part with respect to the sensor. The part handler further has a surface follower upon which the sensor is mounted, thereby maintaining a constant distance between the sensor and the exterior surface of the cylindrical metal part. The sensor is mounted so that a front surface of the sensor is within the vessel with couplant between the front surface of the sensor and the part.

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Kennewick, WA, United States of America

George J Schuster