Apparatus for detecting defects
First Claim
1. A roller sensor unit assembly comprising:
- a wheel rotatably coupled to an axle,a tire having a circumferential surface and mounted on said wheel,a liquid filling said tire, anda transducer positioned within said tire and coupled to said axle,said transducer including a first ultrasonic phased array transducer directed toward said circumferential surface of said tire at a first ultrasonic phased array transducer first angle,wherein said first ultrasonic phased array transducer includes a roof angle of between 10 and 55 degrees and a wedge angle of between 0 and 30 degrees.
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Accused Products
Abstract
An apparatus for detecting defects in a railway rail includes a search unit and preferably a roller search unit (“RSU”) mounted on a test vehicle and in rolling contact with the running surface of the rails to inspect each rail. The RSU includes a tire filled with a liquid and a transducer assembly mounted within the tire. The transducer assembly includes one or more arrays of ultrasonic transducers directed toward the running surface of the rail. A laser profiler mounted on the test vehicle in combination with a linear encoder provide profile data which is communicated to a system controller to dynamically adjust the focal laws for the one or more arrays of transducers to dynamically steer the transmitted beams to produce the ideal inspection beam sets while the test vehicle is in motion.
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Citations
18 Claims
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1. A roller sensor unit assembly comprising:
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a wheel rotatably coupled to an axle, a tire having a circumferential surface and mounted on said wheel, a liquid filling said tire, and a transducer positioned within said tire and coupled to said axle, said transducer including a first ultrasonic phased array transducer directed toward said circumferential surface of said tire at a first ultrasonic phased array transducer first angle, wherein said first ultrasonic phased array transducer includes a roof angle of between 10 and 55 degrees and a wedge angle of between 0 and 30 degrees. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18)
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Specification