For the In - Service - Inspection (ISI ) of welds in power plants the code requires NDE techniques. One of these techniques for volume and surface inspections is the Ultrasonic Technique (UT ). An optimized inspection procedure commits the use of several angles of incidence.

All probe characteristics like pulse, spectrum, soundfield and sensitivity are compareable to standard UT-Probes with a single function and exceed former PA - Probes. After passing the qualification program in laboratory, the Multifunction UT - Phased Array Transducer was used in field in March 96 with great success. The very short time schedule and a lot of geometrical restrictions were the backround conditions. The scanning areas could be optimized and the inspection volume was covered by 100%. The new technique was effective , time and money were saved.

Author:

Dipl.-Ing. Werner Rathgeb,
born 1948, studied Material Sience at the University of Berlin.
From 1976 until today be worked in several departments of SIEMENS/KWU.
Since 1996 he has been in charge of the department for probe development at SIEMENS/KWU in Erlangen, Germany.
E-mail: HOFFMANU@erls12.KWU.siemens.de