Olympus America Inc.

Olympus Scientific Solutions Americas Corp.

Sylvain Sauvageau

Benjamin Spay

Martin Dupuis

Francois Houde

Veronique Simard

Simon Alain

An ultrasound probe assembly comprises a housing and a wedge, wherein wedges configured for pipes of different diameter may be easily interchanged in the assembly. Four wheels are attached to the housing, there being a front wheel pair and a rear wheel pair. Wheels of each pair are positioned on either side of a linear probe array, wherein the distance between wheels in each pair in a direction perpendicular to the array length is as small as possible. A position encoder monitors the position of the assembly during scanning, and a push lock switch is used to disable the encoder and the data acquisition while indexing to a new scan position on the pipe.

Ultrasonic scanner with interchangeable wedge and flexible probe

An ultrasound scanner assembly for inspection of pipes and pipe elbows comprises a frame and a wedge. Four wheels are attached to the frame, there being a front wheel pair and a rear wheel pair. In order to maintain stable positioning of the probe assembly while scanning, the wheels are magnetic, thereby establishing a magnetic stabilizing force between the wheels and the pipe or pipe elbow. The magnetic stabilizing force is larger for pipes of small diameter than for pipes of large diameter.

Scanner magnetic wheel system for close traction on pipes and pipe elbows

Ultrasonic scanner for inspecting pipes and pipe elbows

Growing community of inventors

Levis, Canada

Sylvain Sauvageau