Ultrasonic inspection apparatus capable of multi-inspection

Abstract

The present invention relates to an ultrasonic inspection apparatus capable of multi-inspection, comprising: a wedge including a lower surface portion in contact with an object to be inspected via a medium, a slope portion that has an upward slope gradient on one side of the lower surface portion and allows ultrasonic waves to be irradiated by means of a probe, a back surface portion extending downward from the top of the slope portion, and an absorption portion that is in contact with the back surface portion and absorbs ultrasonic waves; a first reflector configured on the back surface portion to reflect, in the direction of the slope portion, longitudinal waves among the ultrasonic waves irradiated into the wedge; and a second reflector configured on the slope portion to reflect the longitudinal waves, reflected from the first reflector, orthogonally to the lower surface portion.

Description

Ultrasound inspection device capable of multi-inspection

[0001] The present invention relates to a device capable of performing multi-inspection in non-destructive testing of a subject using ultrasound.

[0002] Non-destructive testing is generally performed to ensure product uniformity and to secure reliability from consumers through quality control and maintenance inspection of industrial products such as pressure vessels, weldments, castings, and rolled materials.

[0003] Ultrasonic inspection is a method of testing that transmits ultrasonic waves to a test piece and displays and analyzes the amount of ultrasonic energy reflected from internal discontinuities, the propagation time of the ultrasonic waves, etc. on a CRT screen to determine the size and location of the discontinuity. Depending on the propagation direction and vibration method, it is classified into vertical testing, inclination testing, surface wave testing, and plate wave testing. Among these, the inclination testing method is used to inspect for defects in the inclination path, and is mainly used to inspect cracks and defects in pressure vessels, weldments, castings, and rolled materials.

[0004] FIG. 1 illustrates a conventional inclination inspection method, which is composed of a wedge having an absorbing portion formed on the back surface and a probe formed on the inclined surface of the wedge. In this conventional technology, as shown in the drawing, among the ultrasonic waves examined, a defect in the inclination inspection path, such as a weld shown as an example, is inspected by transverse waves (②, ③), and in the case of longitudinal waves (④), interference with transverse waves is controlled by having them absorbed by the absorbing portion.

[0005] However, in the above technology, only defects in the path of the inclination probe are inspected, and separate inspections are required for the condition of the medium at the contact surface between the probe and the wedge, and the wedge and the subject, and defects in the subject itself.

[0006] The present invention has been devised to solve the above problems, and aims to provide a device capable of inspecting not only defects in an inclined path, but also the state of a medium and defects in the subject itself.

[0007] In order to solve the above-described problems, the present invention provides an ultrasonic inspection device capable of performing multiple inspections (hereinafter referred to as the “device of the present invention”), which comprises: a wedge including a lower portion that contacts a subject and a medium as a medium; an inclined portion that forms an upward slope on one side of the lower portion and allows ultrasonic waves to be irradiated by a probe; a rear portion extending downward from an upper end of the inclined portion; and an absorbing portion that absorbs ultrasonic waves while in contact with the rear portion; a first reflector configured on the rear portion to reflect longitudinal waves among ultrasonic waves irradiated into the wedge in the direction of the inclined portion; and a second reflector configured on the inclined portion to reflect longitudinal waves reflected from the first reflector so as to be orthogonal to the lower portion.

[0008] As an example, the inclined portion is characterized in that it includes a first inclined portion in which the probe is formed, a second inclined portion connected to the upper end of the first inclined portion and having a different slope gradient from the first inclined portion, and a third inclined portion connected to the upper end of the second inclined portion and in which the second reflector is formed.

[0009] As an example, the height between the second reflector in the lower part or the distance between the first reflector in the probe is adjusted so that the echo of the longitudinal wave reflected by the second reflector to the lower part appears after the inspection section of the transverse wave irradiated into the subject.

[0010] As an example, the third slope is configured in multiple ways to form a height difference, and the second reflector is configured on the selected third slope so that the height between the second reflectors is adjusted at the lower surface.

[0011] As an example, it is characterized in that the distance between the probe and the first reflector is adjusted by adjusting the position of the probe at the first slope and the position of the first reflector at the back surface.

[0012] As an example, the sound-absorbing portion is characterized by being configured to cover the rear surface, the upper surface connected to the rear surface, the third slope, and the second slope.

[0013] As described above, the device of the present invention has the advantage of being able to perform multiple inspections with one device by enabling not only inspection of the presence or absence of abnormalities in the transverse wave inclination angle detection path that propagates inside the test object using transverse waves, but also measurement of the state of the contact medium and the thickness of the test object using longitudinal waves.

[0014] Figure 1 is a drawing illustrating a prior art.

[0015] Figure 2 is a drawing showing a basic example of the present invention.

[0016] Figure 3 is a drawing showing the operating state of the present invention.

[0017] Fig. 4 is a diagram showing an example of an ultrasonic signal according to the operating state of the present invention.

[0018] Figure 5 is an operating state diagram showing one embodiment of the present invention.

[0019] Figure 6 is a drawing showing one embodiment of a sound absorbing part in the present invention.

[0020] Hereinafter, the composition and operation of the present invention will be described in more detail with reference to the attached drawings. In describing the present invention, terms and words used in this specification and claims should be interpreted with meanings and concepts consistent with the technical spirit of the present invention, based on the principle that the inventor can appropriately define the concepts of the terms to best describe his or her invention.

[0021] The device (1) of the present invention, as shown in FIG. 2, is characterized by including a wedge (2) including a lower portion (21) that contacts a subject (100) through a medium, an inclined portion (22) that forms an upward slope on one side of the lower portion (21) and allows ultrasonic waves to be irradiated by a probe (3), a back portion (23) extending downward from the upper end of the inclined portion (22), and an absorbing portion (24) that absorbs ultrasonic waves while in contact with the back portion (23); a first reflector (4) that is formed on the back portion (23) and reflects longitudinal waves among ultrasonic waves irradiated into the wedge (2) toward the inclined portion (22); and a second reflector (5) that is formed on the upper end of the inclined portion (22) and reflects longitudinal waves reflected from the first reflector (4) orthogonally to the lower portion (21).

[0022] That is, the present invention enables multi-inspection by analyzing defects (cracks, corrosion, etc.) of a welded portion (110) of a test object (100) using transverse waves, as shown in FIG. 2, while analyzing the state of the contact medium, thickness measurement of the test object (100), etc. using longitudinal waves.

[0023] When a defect such as a crack or corrosion occurs in the welded portion (110) of the subject (100), the irradiated ultrasonic waves return as reflected waves from the portion where the defect such as the crack or corrosion occurs, so that the location of the crack or corrosion can be analyzed based on the amplitude, wavelength, time, etc. of the reflected waves. Since there are various known technologies for analyzing the location of the defect such as the crack or corrosion using these reflected waves, a description thereof will be omitted.

[0024] For convenience of explanation, this section describes the case of weld defect inspection, but the inspection along the inclined angle inspection path also applies to pressure vessels, castings, and rolled materials without welds.

[0025] Here, the above-mentioned probe (3) may use a piezoelectric element, and the piezoelectric element is used to mutually convert an electric signal and an ultrasonic wave. Although not shown in the drawing, when an electric signal is applied to the probe (3) from the signal transmission / reception unit, the probe (3) converts the electric signal into an ultrasonic wave and conducts an investigation. When the probe (3) receives an ultrasonic wave as a reflected wave, the ultrasonic wave thus received is converted into an electric signal, and the electric signal converted by the signal transmission / reception unit is received. The presence or absence of a defect is analyzed using the electric signal thus converted.

[0026] The above signal transmitter / receiver analyzes whether cracks, corrosion, etc. occur, their locations, etc. based on the transmitted and received electric signals. Since various algorithms for analyzing whether cracks, corrosion, etc. occur, their locations, etc. based on the transmitted and received electric signals exist in the known art, their descriptions will be omitted.

[0027] The above wedge (2) is characterized by including a lower portion (21) that comes into contact with the subject (100) through a medium, an inclined portion (22) that forms an upward slope on one side of the lower portion (21), a back portion (23) that extends downward from the upper end of the inclined portion (22), and an absorbing portion (24) that absorbs ultrasonic waves while coming into contact with the back portion (23).

[0028] To explain this in more detail, the inclined portion (22) is characterized by including a first inclined portion (221) in which the probe (3) is formed, a second inclined portion (222) connected to the upper end of the first inclined portion (221) and having a different incline from the first inclined portion (221), and a third inclined portion (223) connected to the upper end of the second inclined portion (222) and in which the second reflector (5) is formed.

[0029] A probe (3) is configured in the first inclined portion (221) so that ultrasonic waves are irradiated from the first inclined portion (221) to the subject (100) while forming a slope gradient by the slope gradient of the first inclined portion (221).

[0030] The ultrasonic waves (①) investigated in this way are irradiated into the inside of the subject (100) to measure the presence or absence of defects in the weld (110) in the case of transverse waves (②, ③), as shown in Fig. 3, and in the case of longitudinal waves (④, ⑤, ⑥, ⑦), the state of the contact medium and the thickness of the subject (100) can be measured by the operating mechanism described below.

[0031] The second inclined portion (222) is connected to the upper end of the first inclined portion (221) and has a different slope from the first inclined portion (221). The height (h) at which the second reflector (5) is formed in the third inclined portion (223) is determined by the second inclined portion (222), so that, as described below, the echo of the longitudinal wave reflected to the lower portion (21) appears after the inspection section of the transverse wave irradiated into the subject (100). In other words, the interference of transverse waves and longitudinal waves is controlled to ensure the accuracy of the measurement.

[0032] The third inclined portion (223) is connected to the upper end of the second inclined portion (222) and the second reflector (5) is formed. The slope of the third inclined portion (223) must be configured so that when the longitudinal wave reflected by the first reflector (4) is reflected by the second reflector (5) to the lower portion (21), the reflected longitudinal wave is reflected perpendicular to the lower portion (21).

[0033] That is, the slope of the third inclined portion (223) must be adjusted so that the incident angle and the reflection angle on the lower portion (21) are 90° so that the longitudinal wave can be irradiated into the inside of the subject (100). In addition, the angle of the first reflector (4) can also be adjusted so that the incident angle and the reflection angle on the lower portion (21) are 90°.

[0034] The above sound-absorbing portion (24) is configured to absorb ultrasonic waves when in contact with the rear surface (23), and various known materials or structures can be applied as its material.

[0035] The above first reflector (4) is configured to reflect (⑤) longitudinal waves (④) of ultrasonic waves irradiated into the inside of the wedge (2) in the direction of the inclined portion (22), i.e., in the direction of the second reflector (5) on the back surface (23).

[0036] The position and angle at which the first reflector (4) is installed in the above rear surface (23) must be adjusted to a position and angle so that the longitudinal wave (④) of the ultrasonic waves can be reflected and irradiated to the second reflector (5).

[0037] The above second reflector (5) is configured to be formed in the third inclined portion (223) and reflects the longitudinal wave (⑤) reflected by the first reflector (4) so ​​that the longitudinal wave (⑥) orthogonal to the lower portion (21) is irradiated.

[0038] By irradiating the longitudinal wave (⑥) perpendicular to the lower surface (21) through the second reflector (5) in this way, the state of the contact medium or bonding between the probe (3) and the inclined portion (221) is measured first, as well as the presence or absence of an abnormality in the contact medium in section A as seen in Fig. 3.

[0039] If a defect occurs in the contact medium or bonding between the probe (3) and the inclined portion (221), the echo in the D region becomes smaller or disappears, as shown in Fig. 4. This is because if the contact medium or bonding between the probe (3) and the inclined portion (221) is poor, it is difficult for ultrasonic waves to propagate into the wedge.

[0040] Additionally, when a defect occurs in the contact medium in section A, the amplitude changes in area D as seen in Fig. 4.

[0041] Next, when a longitudinal wave (⑥) perpendicular to the lower surface (21) is irradiated (⑦) into the inside of the subject (100) by the second reflector (5), the thickness of the subject (100) and the presence or absence of a defect in the subject (100) itself are measured by this longitudinal wave. As shown in Fig. 4, the thickness of the subject (100) and the presence or absence of a defect in the subject (100) itself can be measured by the echo generated in the E region.

[0042] Meanwhile, the present invention is characterized in that the height (h) between the second reflector (5) on the lower surface (21) or the distance (d) between the probe (3) and the first reflector (4) is adjusted so that the echo of the longitudinal wave (⑥, ⑦) reflected by the second reflector (5) to the lower surface (21) appears after the inspection section of the transverse wave (②, ③) irradiated into the subject (100).

[0043] Here, the "transverse wave inspection section" is defined as the section in which echoes can be generated by reflection on the path to section B by transverse waves (②, ③) in the C section in FIG. 4. In the present invention, by adjusting the height (h) between the second reflector (5) in the lower surface (21) or the distance (d) between the probe (3) and the first reflector (4), echoes by longitudinal waves (⑥, ⑦) are generated in the D and E sections after the C section, which is the "transverse plate inspection section," thereby controlling interference between echoes by transverse waves and longitudinal waves.

[0044] One embodiment for this is illustrated in FIG. 5. As shown in FIG. 5, a plurality of third slopes (223) are configured to form a height difference, and a second reflector (5) is configured on a selected third slope (223), so that the height between the second reflector (5) and the lower surface (21) is adjusted.

[0045] In this embodiment, a plurality of third slopes (223) are configured so that the second reflector (5) is configured on the selected third slope (223), thereby adjusting the h value.

[0046] In addition, in this embodiment, as shown in FIG. 5, an example is presented in which the distance (d) between the probe (3) and the first reflector (4) is adjusted by adjusting the position of the probe (3) at the first slope (321) and the position of the first reflector (4) at the back surface (23).

[0047] The drawing shows an example in which the configuration position of the second reflector (5) is selected in a plurality of third slopes (223) and the position of the probe (3) in the first slope (321) and the position of the first reflector (4) in the back surface (23) are adjusted so that the height (h) between the second reflector (5) in the lower surface (21) and the distance (d) between the probe (3) and the first reflector (4) are adjusted from (h1, d1) to (h2, d2).

[0048] Through this adjustment, the echo of the longitudinal wave (⑥, ⑦) reflected by the second reflector (5) to the lower surface (21) is adjusted to appear after the inspection section of the transverse wave (②, ③) irradiated into the subject (100).

[0049] Meanwhile, another embodiment of the sound-absorbing portion (24) of the present invention is illustrated in Fig. 6. The sound-absorbing portion (24) of this embodiment is characterized by being configured to cover not only the rear surface (23), but also the upper surface (25), the third slope (223), and the second slope (222) connected to the rear surface (23).

[0050] By configuring the sound-absorbing portion (24) in this way, unnecessary reflection signals are absorbed within the wedge (2). That is, by controlling unnecessary interference of longitudinal waves reflected by the structure of the sound-absorbing portion (24), the accuracy of inspection for defects in the contact medium or bonding between the probe (3) and the inclined portion (221) mentioned above, defects in the contact medium in part A, the thickness of the subject (100), defects in the subject (100) itself, etc. is doubled.

[0051] Those skilled in the art will appreciate that various changes and modifications can be made without departing from the technical spirit of the present invention, as explained above. Therefore, the technical scope of the present invention should not be limited to the details described in the detailed description of the specification, but should be defined by the claims.

Claims

1. A wedge including a lower portion that contacts a subject and a medium, an inclined portion that forms an upward slope on one side of the lower portion and allows ultrasonic waves to be irradiated by a probe, a back portion that extends downward from the upper end of the inclined portion, and an absorbing portion that absorbs ultrasonic waves while contacting the back portion; A first reflector configured on the back surface to reflect longitudinal waves of ultrasonic waves irradiated into the wedge in the direction of the slope; and An ultrasonic inspection device capable of multi-inspection, characterized by including a second reflector configured on the inclined portion to reflect longitudinal waves reflected from the first reflector orthogonally to the lower portion.

2. In paragraph 1, In the above slope, An ultrasonic inspection device capable of multi-inspection, characterized in that it includes a first inclined portion in which the probe is formed, a second inclined portion connected to the upper end of the first inclined portion and having a different incline from the first inclined portion, and a third inclined portion connected to the upper end of the second inclined portion and having the second reflector formed therein.

3. In paragraph 2, An ultrasonic inspection device capable of multi-inspection, characterized in that the height between the second reflector on the lower surface or the distance between the first reflector on the probe is adjusted so that the echo of the longitudinal wave reflected by the second reflector to the lower surface appears after the inspection section of the transverse wave irradiated into the subject.

4. In paragraph 3, An ultrasonic inspection device capable of multi-inspection, characterized in that the third slope is configured in multiple ways to form a height difference, and a second reflector is configured on the selected third slope so that the height between the second reflectors is adjusted at the lower surface.

5. In paragraph 3, An ultrasonic inspection device capable of multi-inspection, characterized in that the distance between the probe and the first reflector is adjusted by adjusting the position of the probe at the first inclined portion and the position of the first reflector at the back portion.

6. In paragraph 2, The above sound absorbing part is, An ultrasonic inspection device capable of multi-inspection, characterized in that it is configured in a form that covers the above-mentioned back surface, the upper surface connected to the above-mentioned back surface, the third inclined portion, and the second inclined portion.

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