The application of nondestructive testing to the aerospace sector is constantly improving, as fast as technology allows, due to increasing presence of composites in structures, the use of new materials and the new geometries emerging. This makes necessary to innovate in the development of NDT methods, like ultrasonics or thermography, and in particular in ultrasounds, from using conventional piezoelectric transducers to phased-array technology, that allows the generation of the sound beam easily controlled and configurable based on the use of a multi-elements matrix of probes that can be electronically trigger. Moreover, the application of popular UT techniques (pulse-echo and through transmission) has been extended to other new innovative techniques, such as laser ultrasonic and air coupled ultrasounds. Tecnatom participates in different innovation project in NDT and develops new equipment for inspection of composite materials. One of the studies is in the comparison of different NDT methods and techniques for the inspection of cured and non-cured materials in aeronautical components with the help of air-coupled ultrasound and thermography. In the article are described the use of robots in automated Tecnatom system, developed in cooperation with KUKA Robotics. The use of its own developed electronics, allow working efficiently with materials with high attenuation, and specialized software, allows effectively inspecting the complex geometries aviation parts, taking into account the scanning trajectory and robot movement and control all the inspection process.
composite materials, air-coupled ultrasound, phased array, TTU and pulse-echo methods, thermography, laser ultrasound, robotic systems, cured and non-cured materials
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