Application of customer specific robots in ultrasonic inspection of aircraft components

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Application of customer specific robots in ultrasonic inspection of aircraft components

Maurer, Albrecht

Weight reduction needs in modern aircraft require the use of advanced composite materials for structural parts in new aircraft. Most of these materials are manufactured by bonding multiple layers if monolithic or composite materials according the required shape and load requirements. Typical materials are: (1) monolithic structures produced by layering of pre-impregnated CFC foils into negative forms, which will then be autoclaved to receive their final shape and strength, (2) composite structures, consisting of metal or carbon layers and honeycomb cores and (3) multiplayer structures consisting of different material combinations, i.e. GLARE, a combination of Aluminium und Glass Fibre layers. All these materials, have in common, that the quality of bonding needs to be checked at the end of the production process. The Ultrasonic Inspection Method has been proven as one major methods for bonding quality verification. Depending on the individual requirements, two main ultrasonic inspection methods are applied: (1) - Pulse-Echo method, where emission and reception will be performed from the same sensor from a single side of the part (2) Through Transmission Method with emission of ultrasound on one side and reception of the ultrasound at the opposite side of the part. Both methods require as a minimum the probes to be scanned at a predefined distance in normal direction over the entire surface. In most of the cases, water is needed as an ultrasound coupling media. At present, linear robots are customized to the part size and shape and to comply with the testing needs.