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Did You Know? We Custom Manufacture Probes for Your Specific Applications

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Custom probe next to a penny

Originally published on February 21, 2017

As the use of phased array ultrasonic technology for industrial inspection applications becomes increasingly widespread, Olympus has adapted to meet our customers’ needs. We’ve continued to expand our manufacturing and engineering resources to develop custom phased array (PA) and custom conventional ultrasonic (UT) transducers for challenging applications.

Customized Ultrasonic Transducers and Probes, Personalized Service

Designed and manufactured in the US, each custom probe is produced by our experts working directly with our customers and our engineering teams to find solutions to customer inspection problems and requests. To date, we’ve designed and manufactured custom ultrasonic transducers and phased array probes for the aerospace, power generation, and petrochemical industries in applications including manufacturing, renewable energy, and research.

Our custom probes and transducers come in many varieties, including immersion, matrix, contact, and integrated wedge versions. If you have parts or components with complex geometries, we can also custom design probes and wedges to fit many area and size constraints.

PA probe CAD drawing for a the complex geometry design of the houseing for NDT transducers of piezoelectic ceramic crystals.

See a summary of our various types of ultrasonic transducers and phased array probes in “Eight Simple Questions,” our handy infographic.

Example of a Challenging Case from the Power Generation Industry

Boiling water reactor (BWR) nozzles and components can degrade over time, stemming from general corrosion to fatigue cycling. In a BWR, there are multiple nozzles that must be inspected. The nozzle types include feedwater, core spray, recirculation, main steam, and drain.

Cracks in the nozzle sections can result in loss of integrity and radiological contamination, causing unscheduled generator shutdown or even a catastrophic failure. Nozzle inspections are complicated due to their austenitic and dissimilar welds, poor accessibility, high temperature, and radioactive dosage.

Meeting Highly Specific Inspection Requirements with a Unique Probe Solution

Our customer supplied us with several specifications for the probe, including how the probe needed to attach to the holder as well as the acoustic requirements. We integrated these specifications into the probe’s design to create a spring-loaded phased array probe and fixture to perform simultaneous pitch-catch circumferential and axial inside diameter inspections in a BWR nozzle.

We also completed a similar probe design using conventional ultrasound instead of phased array for a time-of-flight diffraction (TOFD) application. Tailoring our probe offerings provides a streamlined approach that enables us to meet our customer’s high expectations.

Customized phased array probe and ndt transducer solution for the nuclear energy application, the inspection of boiling water reactor nozzles.

Probe Solutions That Meet Your Specifications and Exceed Your Expectations

Our core mission is to serve our customers whether it’s through off-the-shelf instruments and probes to custom-made solutions. 

Related Content

NDT Solutions— Custom Phased Array Probe and Wedge Design Inquiry

Serial Number 1—Looking Back at Our First Transducer

An Introduction to Ultrasonic Transducers for Nondestructive Testing

Staff Writer

Sarah Williams worked for nearly a decade as a researcher and copywriter in the broadcast media industry. Now Sarah applies her skills as a writer and editor to produce compelling, high-quality material on topics related to Evident’s wide range of nondestructive testing (NDT) solutions. She writes about the latest remote visual, microscope, ultrasonic, eddy current, and phased array technologies. She also explores their applications and contributions to improving the quality and safety of the world around us. Sarah works at the office in Quebec City, where she resides with her partner, David, and her three children, Sophie, Anouk, and Éloi. 

January 29, 2020
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