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BRANCH: Car body constructionCar manufacturer

TASK: Testing metal adhesive bondings

In the field of jointing technology, the adhesive method is gain-ing more importance as an alternative to welding, riveting,saddle joining and solderingThe nondestructive test, introduced for bond testing, must besupplemented by the ultrasonic test method for testing adhe-sive bondings.

SOLUTION: The through-transmission technique is used due to the large

difference in sound impedance between metal and adhe-sive.By doing this, an integral result can be obtained about thewetting condition in the material volume being beamed.

Adhesive wetting:

D u r c h s c h a l l u n g s a n z e i g eWater delay

H 5 M

Water delay

H 5 M

Tx

Rx

Without adhesive wetting:

S t r p e g e l

Application Report

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Wetting flaws are detected by failure of the through-transmission indication. Location of the flaw position on thethrough-transmission axis is not possible with this method.

If adhesive is used having a higher sound impedance (e.g. bychanges in interlacing or filler material), the pulse echomethod can be used due to the larger amplitude changes inthe interface echo between the wetted condition and the un-wetted condition.

Adhesive wetting:

4 . R c k w a n d e c h o

E i n t r i t t s e c h o

Water delay

H 10 M

Adhesive

Without adhesive wetting:

This method requires a test to be made from both metalsurfaces in order to obtain a complete assessment. Handlingis considerably easier than the through-transmission tech-nique which uses the corresponding probe manipulation.

SUITABLE EQUIPMENT:

Ultrasonic Flaw Detector: USD 15X Probe: H 5 M (through-transmission

technique)H 10 M (echo pulse technique)

Application Report / Page 2