Airbus (Sas)

Airbus Corporation

Airbus Operations Gmbh

European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company Eads France

Airbus Group Sas

Hubert Voillaume

Benjamin Campagne

Franck Bentouhami

Stéphane Auffray

Jacques Cinquin

An ultrasound device for checking the quality of a composite material structure during the production cycle. Preferably, the device is incorporated into a production tooling performing the LRI process in which the composite material structure is placed between two molds during the production cycle. A layer of piezoelectric material is deposited on the face of one of the molds, opposite the face which is in contact with the structure. One face of an electrically insulating flexible material film is placed against the outer face of the piezoelectric material layer. The face of the film further includes conductive pads in contact with the piezoelectric material layer. Each pad is energized by electric voltage applied by a conductive strip. Each pad forms an independent ultrasonic transducer with the region of the piezoelectric material layer opposite of its placement.

Reconfigurable device for checking a composite structure using ultrasound

The device according to the invention consists of associating a laser inspection head including a source emitting a laser beam swept along a defined axis and a handling robot seeing to the movement and spatial orientation of parts whose structure requires inspection. The inspection head and the handling robot are configured and arranged across from one another such that the inspection head occupying a stationary position, the handling robot can move the part to be inspected across from the inspection head, such that the sweep of the laser beam combined with the movement of the part in a direction perpendicular to the sweeping direction makes it possible to inspect the entire surface of the part. In one particular configuration, the handling robot makes it possible to vary the orientation of the part relative to the direction of the laser beam so as to have optimal lighting of the part.

Device for the robotic control of a structure by ultrasound-laser

A monitoring system comprising ultrasound sensors to monitor the structure of a composite material part during production is automatically calibrated using reference sensors mounted on reference blocks and placed in the production environment of the part. The automatic calibration comprises actuating a reference sensor to transmit an ultrasonic wave and measuring the amplitude of a reference echo constituted by the transmitted ultrasonic wave after it has passed through the reference block. The measured amplitude is compared to a set point value and the gain is applied to the reference sensor to obtain an amplitude value of the reference echo substantially equal to the set point value. The gain applied to the reference sensor is applied to the ultrasound sensors of the same type as the reference sensor. The operation is performed for each reference sensor, and successively for all of the stages of production of the part.

Automatic calibration method for checking by ultrasound a composite material structure during production

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Issy les Moulineaux, France

Hubert Voillaume