Development of a phased array ultrasound roller probe for inspection of wire + arc additive manufactured components

Vithanage, Randika K.W. and Mohseni, Ehsan and Lines, David and Loukas, Charalampos and Foster, Euan and MacLeod, Charles N. and Pierce, S. Gareth and Gachagan, Anthony and Ding, Jialuo and Williams, Stewart (2022) Development of a phased array ultrasound roller probe for inspection of wire + arc additive manufactured components. Journal of Manufacturing Processes, 80. pp. 765-774. ISSN 1526-6125 (https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jmapro.2022.06.045)

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Abstract

The wire + arc additive manufacturing (WAAM) process, which combines an electric arc as a heat source and metal wire as feedstock is proving to be very effective when producing medium to large scale metal components. The non-destructive testing (NDT) of WAAM parts, while they are being produced, provides early intervention opportunities to rectify manufacturing nonconformities and to perform in-process quality assurance of the parts. This attracts a significant amount of material, time and cost savings. Therefore, this paper presents the research, development and validation of a high temperature phased array ultrasound testing (PAUT) roller probe to perform robotically delivered in-process NDT of WAAM components. The experimental results confirm that the PAUT roller probe can endure surface temperatures up to 350 °C, can be autonomously deployed via a robotic arm and can detect 1 mm diameter flat-bottom holes located 6 mm, 9 mm and 12 mm deep under the unmachined surface of a Ti-6Al-4V WAAM calibration block.

ORCID iDs

Vithanage, Randika K.W. ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1023-2564, Mohseni, Ehsan ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0819-6592, Lines, David ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8538-2914, Loukas, Charalampos ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3465-8076, Foster, Euan, MacLeod, Charles N. ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4364-9769, Pierce, S. Gareth ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0312-8766, Gachagan, Anthony ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9728-4120, Ding, Jialuo and Williams, Stewart;
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