Patent ID: 7823454

Claim:
A method for ultrasonically inspecting components with uneven surfaces, comprising: a. providing a fluid coupling of at least several ultrasonic wavelengths thick between an ultrasonic transducer and a component by immersing the component in liquid and providing a space between the transducer and component that allows an uneven surface on the component without contact between the transducer and component, the ultrasonic transducer comprising an array of small unfocused elements with each element producing substantial beam spread; b. scanning the component, firing each individual ultrasonic element one at a time; c. for each firing, simultaneously recording the received reflected ultrasonic waveform from both the surface and interior reflectors from each element in the array; d. processing the collected array of ultrasonic waveform data to sweep an ultrasonic beam in angle at each probe position and, using the known angle and probe position, measure the surface profile of the component; e. calculating signal processing parameters based on the measured surface profile, as a function of probe position, to eliminate beam distortion; and f. processing the collected array of data using the newly calculated signal processing parameters to correct for surface irregularities in the component and obtain an inspection of the interior reflectors of the component.