초록 ▼

An ultrasonic real-time inspection method which is user-friendly in an interactive environment to provide ease of operation, as well as a combination of consistency, thoroughness, and speed of operation in flaw detection not achievable by other methods. The method offers significantly increased patt

An ultrasonic real-time inspection method which is user-friendly in an interactive environment to provide ease of operation, as well as a combination of consistency, thoroughness, and speed of operation in flaw detection not achievable by other methods. The method offers significantly increased pattern recognition capability, which provides greater automation potential and reduced missed detection and false alarm rates.

대표청구항 ▼

[ We claim:] [1.] A method for examining railroad rails for flaws using ultrasonic investigation techniques and for identifying flaws in the rail on a real-time basis, comprising the steps of:repetitively and regularly injecting pulses of a plurality of ultrasonic beams into the rails from test devi

[ We claim:] [1.] A method for examining railroad rails for flaws using ultrasonic investigation techniques and for identifying flaws in the rail on a real-time basis, comprising the steps of:repetitively and regularly injecting pulses of a plurality of ultrasonic beams into the rails from test devices mounted on a vehicle traveling along the rails, and detecting within the test devices acoustic echoes caused at rail discontinuities by the ultrasonic-beams to produce electrical signals representative of the magnitude of the acoustic echoes;determining travel times of the acoustic echoes to the place of injection into the rails of the beams which caused the acoustic echoes;while said ultrasonic beams are repetitively and regularly injected into the rails, deriving from said travel times, angles of travel, beam pulse speeds, and beam spreads of the ultrasonic beams inside the rails, spatial signals representative of the locations of the discontinuities along the rails;combining spatial signals located within slices of the rails to identify and locate flaws in and along the rails while said ultrasonic beams are repetitively and regularly activated including the steps of storing information representative of normal patterns of known rail discontinuities and manufactured contexts, comparing combined spatial signals with said stored information to detect and identify unknown discontinuities and to one of eliminate and reclassify those discontinuities inconsistent with recognized context; andindicating the locations of said rail discontinuities.