Midas-NDT have received their first major order to design, manufacture and install a fully automated system utilising their latest Elastic Array Technology. The system will be delivered to Bombardier Aerospace in Belfast, Northern Ireland where full training and commissioning will be carried out as part of a turn-key operation.

In order to carry out manual or semi-automated inspection of RTM enclosed sections a new patented inspection method has been developed by Midas-NDT using a phased-array technique. The technique uses two ultrasonic phased-array probes mounted on a ‘dovetail’ slide that allows the arrays to move up and down to achieve 100% coverage on a tapering internal support stringer.

Two phased array probes on a dove-tail slide mechanism are mounted on a polyurethane guide. The polyurethane guide is of semi-rigid construction and when pulled through a component will contract to the height of the component. The arrays are attached one to the top of the guide and one to the bottom of the guide and will move closer together as the guide contracts. The dovetail slide ensures that the arrays move smoothly and maintains their alignment relative to each other in the horizontal plane.

The mechanism enables the arrays to maintain their positions and merely move closer together as the height of the component aperture reduces. This allows the instrument to acquire two c-scans (one from each transducer array), each c-scan will reveal all necessary data from the component as follows: The top transducer will reveal data from the top of the support stringer in the full height of the transducer array. The bottom transducer will reveal data from the bottom of the support stringer in the full height of the transducer array.

An overlap area is revealed on each c-scan, this being the area that is inspected by both transducer arrays, This overlap becomes larger as the height of the aperture reduces.