Midas-NDT have received a major order for an immersion phased-array inspection system from Kaman Composites in Darwen, England.

Similar system supplied to SABCA Limburg NV in Belgium

LATIS systems are fitted with an Olympus NDT FocusScan LT instrument and fully integrated within Midas NDT data acquisition and evaluation software.

A phased array transducer consists of a set of ultrasonic elements being systematically fired to create a swathe of ultrasonic data instead of the single line of data captured using conventional ultrasonic techniques.

The immersion system is fitted with a multi-axis manipulator containing a 128 element probe array allowing an 83mm swathe of data to be acquired in a single pass.

Running at a speed of 120mm per second, the system is capable of acquiring simultaneous amplitude and thickness scans of a 1000 mm x 1000 mm curved carbon fibre flap in just over two minutes, approximately ten times the inspection rate of a conventional system.

The film below depicts the actual inspection of a 1000mm x 1000mm curved flap section in real time. Please Note: This is an immersion technique and the process was re-filmed without the water for presentation purposes.