Patent ID: 9588086
Date: 2017-03-07
CPC Classifications: G01N,Y10T

Claim:
1. An ultrasonic sensor assembly for testing a pipe, the ultrasonic sensor assembly comprising: an array of plural transmitters, each transmitter of the array of transmitters being attached to the pipe and being operatively configured to transmit waves longitudinally along the pipe, the array of transmitters being spaced about the circumference of the pipe; an array of plural receivers, the array of receivers being different from the array of transmitters and spaced longitudinally from the array of transmitters along the pipe, each receiver of the array of receivers being attached to the pipe and being operatively configured to receive the waves that are transmitted along the pipe and operatively configured to output a signal indicative of characteristics of the received waves, the array of receivers being spaced about the circumference of the pipe; and a controller operatively connected to the array of transmitters and operatively connected to the array of receivers, the controller being configured to control the array of transmitters to transmit the waves along the pipe and the controller being configured to process the signals from the array of receivers and being configured to determine a relative circumferential position of at least one of the receivers of the array of receivers with respect to the circumferential position of at least one of the transmitters of the array of transmitters, which is a measure of offset circumferential distance of the at least one of the receivers from longitudinal alignment with the at least one of the transmitters, based on the characteristics of the waves from the at least one transmitters received by the at least one of the receivers.