Aerospace Composite Materials Testing

To boost fuel efficiency light-weight composite material like carbon and glass fiber-reinforced polymers (CFK, CFRP, GFRP) gain more and more share in modern aircrafts, cars, ships, and trains. Apart from the light-weight properties, the possibility to form the material into almost any complex 3D shape makes it attractive to technical designers for use in components that are subject to air or water resistance.

Latest manufacturing processes and material properties today enable for use in safety critical aviation components like wings, winglets, flaps, elevators or even fan-engines that up to a few years ago were reserved to parts made from steel, aluminum, or titanium only.

However, when it comes to non-destructive testing (NDT) and here especially to ultrasonic inspection (UT), the material properties of composite material in combination with complex shapes are a real challenge.

Depending on the kind of material the inspection can be carried out in applying the standard pulse-echo method. Where this is not possible, through-transmission technique (TTM) needs to be applied, even putting more requirements on the manufacturing accuracy of the system, as both probes – the transmitting and receiving one – need to be remain in one perfect axis while following all kind of complex geometries on both sides of the test object.

With more than 40 years of experience in automated ultrasonic industrial inspection of aerospace composites and a large installed base all around the globe, Waygate Technologies is a trusted partner in aviation material related NDT. Many customers operate multiple machines, having placed their trust in Waygate Technologies for decades. The systems are well established in the market due to their proven productivity, performance, and durability.

The offering comprises a variety of designs from single and dual robotic systems to highest precision providing cartesian gantry scanners with up to 13 axes to 3D “wing size” immersion tanks.

A multitude of modular UT instrumentation is available, ranging from high-precision single-channel applications as well as multi-channel phased array packages (PAT, PAUT) for critical application needs and highest test speed requirements.

Pulse-Echo and Through Transmission Inspection (TTM) capabilities are available with all systems.

Advanced Ultrasonic Inspection Solutions for Aerospace Composites