Inspection system for welded tubular joint based on ultrasonic phased array

A manual inspection of large-diameter tubular joints is difficult. As a result a scanner with three degrees of freedom (DOFs) was developed based on the scanning principle of ultrasonic phased array. The weld tracing is realized by a 2D0F motion of scanner. The pose of ultrasonic probe is controlled by the third one. The control strategy is put forward based on a programmable multi-axis controller. Four kinds of scanning modes can be implemented simultaneously employing this ultrasonic inspection system. Experiments on reference blocks of tubular joints reveal that the automatic ultrasonic phased array inspection system has the same inspection accuracy as a manual ultrasonic inspection. This system is superior to the manual ultrasonic system in terms of reliability and repeatability. The artificial defects of weld at tubular joint can be detected accurately with the presented inspection system.