DEVELOPMENT AND DEPLOYMENT OF ABSOLUTE RECORDABLE MANUAL ULTRASONIC TESTING SYSTEM (ARMUT SYSTEM)

抄録

Manual ultrasonic testing (M-UT) and Automated UT (A-UT) has been applied to nuclear component welds in In-service Inspection (ISI). M-UT, in which only an ultrasonic waveform is displayed, can easily be performed using a relatively economical device, so it is widely used for general purposes as well. However, M-UT examiner can note down records information (such as the ultrasonic waveform and defect positions), when found waveform exceeding the threshold level, but it’s not possible to take all waveform records in passed weld regions. Therefore, the reliability of inspection results of M-UT is affected by the skill of examination personnel.

In contrast, A-UT has the function of automatically saving to the PC all data obtained during inspection, including the ultrasonic waveforms, probe positions. Therefore, A-UT can prove there is no flaw in an inspection object by the digital recorded data, but A-UT is more expensive and takes workload for preparing than M-UT.

We developed an absolute recordable manual ultrasonic testing system (ARMUT® system) to take easily and economically records, to increase reliability for ultrasonic testing. The ARMUT system is already deployed to nuclear power stations, and oil and gas plants.