The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Mar. 28, 2006
Filed:
Oct. 01, 2004
Hegeon Kwun, San Antonio, TX (US);
James F. Crane, San Antonio, TX (US);
Sang-young Kim, San Antonio, TX (US);
Hegeon Kwun, San Antonio, TX (US);
James F. Crane, San Antonio, TX (US);
Sang-Young Kim, San Antonio, TX (US);
Southwest Research Institute, San Antonio, TX (US);
Abstract
The invention provides an improved method and device for inspecting heat exchanger tubes from within the tube inside diameter that overcomes the shortcomings of the prior art. It adapts a guided-wave probe approach that makes use of a torsional wave mode instead of a longitudinal wave node disclosed in the prior art. The torsional wave mode has many advantages over the longitudinal wave mode for detecting defects. When energized by suitable instrumentation, the probe is caused to generate a torsional mode signal that is transmitted to the heat exchanger tube from the waveguide tube. When reflected signals from defects in the heat exchanger tube walls are returned to the inspection opening end of the heat exchanger tube, the reflected defect signals are transmitted to the probe waveguide tube for amplification, detection and characterization of the reflected signal.