Design of a scanning system for the identification of beam profile of immersion ultrasonic probes

Ultrasonic testing (UT) is widely used in industry to inspect metallic components. A large portion of industrial ultrasonic tests is performed using immersion tanks. This work focuses on the design and metrological characterization of a system for the identification of the beam profile of immersion ultrasonic transducers. The system has to grant a positioning accuracy of 0.01 mm in a scanning volume of approximately 200×200×300 mm. The initial part of the work focused on the identification of the functional requirements of the system (scanning resolution, speed calibration requirement). The mechanical structure of the 3D scanning system has been designed using finite element simulations to obtain a first natural frequency above 8 Hz. A Cartesian robot was designed and the robot position was controlled by a purposely designed LabVIEW Software. The scanning system was finally realized and characterized in terms of accuracy, repeatability and natural frequencies. The position measurement uncertainty, in the scanning area, was 6 µm.