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. 05, 2013
Filed:
Nov. 18, 2009
Masaki Yamano, Osaka, JP;
Hiroyuki Okubo, Osaka, JP;
Takumi Horikiri, Osaka, JP;
Sumitomo Metal Industries, Ltd., Osaka, JP;
Abstract
Provided are an ultrasonic testing method and an ultrasonic testing apparatus capable of accurately detecting flaws present in a weld zone of a test object, such as a welded pipe, regardless of the position of the flaws. An ultrasonic testing apparatusincludes an ultrasonic probewhich is provided with n (n≧2) transducersarranged along a direction orthogonal to the weld line of a weld zone Pof a test object P and is arranged so as to face the weld zone, and transmission/reception control meanswhich selects m (n>m≧1) transducers from the n transducers, causes the selected transducers to transmit and receive ultrasonic waves to and from the weld zone, and switches the selected transducers one after another. The transmission/reception control means switches the selected transducers one after another so that the range of an effective beam width of each of the selected transducers that have been switched for a flaw to be detected has an overlapping portion, and in the transmission/reception control means, the flaw detection sensitivity is adjusted beforehand for each of the selected transducers so that maximum echo intensities from a flaw to be detected, which are each received by each of the selected transducers that have been switched, become substantially equal to each other.