ULTRASONIC INSPECTION APPARATUS, ULTRASONIC PROBE APPARATUS USED FOR ULTRASONIC INSPECTION APPARATUS, AND ULTRASONIC INSPECTION METHOD

• US 20100212429A1
• Filed: 09/18/2008
• Published: 08/26/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 09/21/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba (Toshiba Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba (Toshiba Corporation)
• Inventors: Isobe, Hideo, Arai, Ryoichi, Ikeda, Takahiro
• Granted Patent: US 8,960,006 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 73/602
• CPC Class Codes: G01N 2291/011 Velocity or travel time
• CPC Class Codes: G01N 2291/0231 Composite or layered materials
• CPC Class Codes: G01N 2291/0289 Internal structure, e.g. defects, grain size, texture
• CPC Class Codes: G01N 29/069 Defect imaging, localisation and sizing using, e.g. time of flight diffraction [TOFD], synthetic aperture focusing technique [SAFT], Amplituden-Laufzeit-Ortskurven [ALOK] technique
• CPC Class Codes: G01N 29/2437 Piezoelectric probes

Abstract

An ultrasonic inspection apparatus includes: an ultrasonic probe apparatus including an ultrasonic transducer; a drive element selecting section that selects a required piezoelectric vibrator of the ultrasonic transducer; a signal detecting circuit that detects an electric signal dependent on a reflected echo of an ultrasonic wave emitted from the selected piezoelectric vibrator; a signal processing section that produces data on an internal image of the inspection object based on the detected reflected echo; a second display unit that combines multiple pieces of image data acquired from the signal processing section and displays an integrated visualization data result; and an second input unit that is used to perform an operation command such as a command input to start or terminate an inspection or an a command to set inspection condition.

Claims

1. An ultrasonic inspection apparatus comprising:

an ultrasonic probe apparatus provided with an ultrasonic transducer constituted of a plurality of piezoelectric vibrators;

a drive element selecting section that is connected to the plurality of piezoelectric vibrators of the ultrasonic transducer and is adopted to select a required piezoelectric vibrator based on a drive signal from a signal generator;

a signal detecting circuit that causes an ultrasonic wave emitted from the piezoelectric vibrator selected by the drive element selecting section to be incident via an acoustic propagation medium on an inspection object and receives a reflected echo thereof to detect an electric signal dependent on the reflected echo; and

a signal processing section that applies a parallel arithmetic process to the detected electric signal dependent on the reflected echo and produces data on an internal image of the inspection object,

wherein the ultrasonic probe apparatus includes a display unit that displays an image based on the image data produced by the signal processing section, and an input unit used to input an operation command such as a command to start or terminate an inspection, or to set inspection conditions.

2. The ultrasonic inspection apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the image displayed in the display unit includes an echo waveform image of the reflected echo from the inspection object.

3. The ultrasonic inspection apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the image displayed in the display unit includes a cross-sectional image of the inspection object.

4. The ultrasonic inspection apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the image displayed in the display unit includes an image produced by extracting an echo peak value in a depth direction of the inspection object.

5. The ultrasonic inspection apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the image displayed in the display unit includes an image produced by extracting depth data of the reflected echo from the inspection object.

6. The ultrasonic inspection apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the image displayed in the display unit includes a display of a result of extracting data on the inspection object from the reflected echo from the inspection object and then performing an arithmetical operation on the data.

7. An ultrasonic probe apparatus connected to a main body of an ultrasonic inspection apparatus, comprising:

a probe holder in a shape of a box;

an ultrasonic transducer including a plurality of piezoelectric vibrators incorporated in the probe holder;

a display unit incorporated in the probe holder; and

an input unit incorporated in the probe holder,

wherein the ultrasonic transducer, the display unit and the input unit are integrally assembled within the probe holder.

8. The ultrasonic probe apparatus according to claim 7, wherein an image displayed in the display unit includes an echo waveform image of a reflected echo from an inspection object.

9. The ultrasonic probe apparatus according to claim 7, wherein the image displayed in the display unit includes a cross-sectional image of the inspection object.

10. The ultrasonic probe apparatus according to claim 7, wherein the image displayed in the display unit includes an image produced by extracting an echo peak value in a depth direction of the inspection object.

11. The ultrasonic probe apparatus according to claim 7, wherein the image displayed in the display unit includes an image produced by extracting depth data of the reflected echo from the inspection object.

12. The ultrasonic probe apparatus according to claim 7, wherein the image displayed in the display unit includes a display of a result of extracting data on the inspection object from the reflected echo from the inspection object and then performing an arithmetical operation on the data.

13. An ultrasonic inspection method comprising the steps of:

preparing an ultrasonic inspection apparatus including;

an ultrasonic probe apparatus including the ultrasonic transducer constituted of a plurality of piezoelectric vibrators, a display unit which displays an image based on image data produced by a signal processing section, and an input unit used to perform an operation command such as a command to start or terminate an inspection or to set an inspection condition;

a drive element selecting section which is connected to a plurality of piezoelectric vibrators of the ultrasonic transducer and selects a required piezoelectric vibrator based on a drive signal from a signal generator;

a signal detecting circuit which causes an ultrasonic wave emitted from the piezoelectric vibrator selected by the drive element selecting section to be incident via an acoustic propagation medium on the inspection object and receives a reflected echo thereof to detect an electric signal dependent on the reflected echo; and

a signal processing section which applies a parallel arithmetic process to the detected electric signal dependent on the reflected echo and produces data on an internal image of the inspection object;

disposing the ultrasonic probe apparatus at a predetermined inspection position of the inspection object;

inputting a command to set inspection conditions through the input unit;

repeating an arrangement of the ultrasonic probe apparatus and an input setting of the command to set the inspection conditions through the input unit until a predetermined display is obtained in the display unit;

inputting an inspection start command through the input unit after adjustment of the display of the display unit;

inspecting the inspection object for flaws by causing the ultrasonic probe apparatus to scan a predetermined range of the inspection object; and

inputting an inspection terminate command through the input unit after completion of inspecting the predetermined range of the inspection object.

14. The ultrasonic inspection method according to claim 13, wherein the inspection condition setting input through the input unit and the starting or terminating the command through the input unit are performed with the ultrasonic probe apparatus being held.

15. The ultrasonic inspection method according to claim 13, wherein after displaying, in the display unit, the echo waveform image of the reflected echo from the inspection object, or the cross-sectional image of the inspection object, the inspection condition setting input is performed through the input unit.