Current status of automated ultrasonic pipe inspection systems - ISI of stainless steel piping systems in BWR power plants

The field of ultrasonics nondestructive testing is constantly expanding its ability of acquiring data and its speed by implementing a computer into the testing system. The computer made it possible to store massive test data into a compact magnetic hard disk for permanent records. The data outputs are displayed on the color CRT screen, and varieties of image display methods, such as A-scan, B-scan, C-scan, P-scan, or many other 3 dimensional isometric views and the modified display techniques are available to an operator. Various hardcopy machines are now a part of the testing system so that the displayed data outputs can be easily copied and filed for permanent documentation. The faster and more accurate mechanized scanners are gradually being substituted for the conventional manual scanning method which has been a major time consuming part of the testing operation. When all such improvements are combined into an integral unit, a reliable, fully automated ultrasonic testing system can by made. The fully automated ultrasonic testing system is needed not only for fast data acquisition, processing, and reliable data display, but also, even more importantly, for considerable reduction of human intervention, which could be a critical factor under the severely limited field environment. Obviously, in the past several years, tremendous accomplishments have been made in automating the test system, and many such systems are being used in the field. However, most of the existing automated systems are still bulky in size and the displayed data is often difficult to interpret to the field operators. Major effect should, therefore, be directed to size reduction of the system as well as improvement on the system reliability