Major Developments in Ultrasound for Materials Process and Quality Control

Posted: 2009-10-13

After 20 years of intense R&D into ultrasound and practical know-how of its interaction with materials, Ultran has developed the following very significant science and technology for materials testing. We firmly believe these advancements will help the materials industry and R&D in producing high quality materials, besides saving cost of production, time, and the environment.

NON-CONTACT ULTRASONIC TRANSDUCERS: Known as NCU transducers, they are characterized by phenomenally high air/gas transduction efficiency, which is sufficient to break the Z (acoustic impedance) barrier for testing of materials without touching them. Produced from <50 kHz to 5.0 MHz in single and multi-element planar and focused array configurations, NCU transducers are protected by the US and international patents. With Ultran's M510 system the NCU transducers are perfectly suitable for testing and analysis of uncured and cured composites, sandwich structures, green ceramics and powder and light metals, porous, hygroscopic, and touch-sensitive materials, wood and lumber, pharmaceutical, food and other products.

GAS MATRIX PIEZOELECTRIC COMPOSITE: Known as GMP, this material exhibits extremely high electro-mechanical coupling efficiency and is protected by the US and international patents. GMP is light weight extremely broadband, very high sensitivity, and its manufacturability allows us to make even very large single element and multi-element arrays. GMP-based transducers are manufactured from <50 kHz to 500 kHz in NCU and contact transducer designs. These transducers are well suited to test highly attenuative materials such as concrete, wood, very thick composites, porous and other materials.

2nd WAVE M510 ULTRASONIC SYSTEM: This novel transducer excitation and amplification system is specifically engineered for operating NCU and GMP contact transducers. It is offered in single or multi-channel configuration and can be used to generate C-scan images of materials. M510 is provided with novel software that is targeted towards materials analysis, statistical process control, and many other useful functions.

Ultran is a heterogeneous team of dedicated scientists and engineers who have worked very hard to advance ultrasound to serve the needs of our complex socio-technical world. It is our hope all interested people will take advantage of this. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact the undersigned. Thank you.

Mahesh C. Bhardwaj, Founder & Chief Technology Officer

The Ultran Group, State College, PA USA

Phone: 814.861.2001