Ultrasonics research in the NIST Manufacturing Engineering Laboratory

The Ultrasonic Standards Group in the Manufacturing Engineering Laboratory of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) performs research, develops standards, and offers calibration services in support of United States industry. In this paper, two areas of recent experimental research using a thin film piezoelectric polymer are briefly reviewed. One is the development and application of a large aperture lensless line-focus transducer for time-resolved pulsed-wave measurements. The second is the effect of nonlinear wave propagation on pulsed waveforms in industrial ultrasonic nondestructive testing applications.