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• August 19, 2017 Create Date
• August 19, 2017 Last Updated

Ultrasonic Quality Inspection of Bonded Honeycomb Assemblies is Automated

To design an inspection system for bonded honey-
comb assemblies that is accurate, fast, and automated.
The size and complexity of the panel sections to be
inspected ranged from 12 to 33 feet in diameter, and
consisted of cylindrical, truncated, hemispherical, and
flat sections of varying lengths and nonsymmetric in-
ternal and external protrusions. The inspection record
would have to indicate clear, interpretable, and pre-
cisely situated test results capable of displaying the
unbond conditions as to the size and extent of the
unbond.

An ultrasonic inspection system that consisted of
inner and outer transducer positioning assemblies
with suitable motor controls,‘a centerless turntable
assembly to rotate the test parts, water squirter assem-
blies to assure the watertightness of joined areas, and
an inspection program that was completely encoded
on tape suitable for use on a high speed computer.

Each assembly required careful preparation prior to
its inspection to assure that water from the squirter
assemblies could not enter through joined areas. The
prepared assembly was then located in place on the
turntable with the applicable tooling. The position and
relative clearance of the assembly surface, and the in-
strumentation, recording model, and all program con-
trols were readied for an automatic inspection as
required by the specific test. All suspect recorded void
areas were further evaluated by complementary ultra-
sonic techniques such as contact, resonant, frequency
shift, sonic, and dimensionalchecks to locate voids to
their respective sides and interfaces to facilitate their
repair.