Patent ID: 8806948

Claim:
An inspection apparatus for inspecting a joint bar having a head and an outside vertical surface and mounted on a side of a rail having a head, said apparatus comprising: a carriage movably engaging the rail, a test assembly secured to said carriage and having an ultrasonic transducer assembly mounted on a transducer actuator assembly, a laser profile system having a first laser transceiver directed at the rail, a distance measuring device coupled to said inspection apparatus and outputting linear position data corresponding to a relative position of said inspection apparatus on the rail, and a system controller coupled to said laser profile system, said distance measuring device and said test assembly, wherein said system controller receives profile data from said laser profile system and linear position data from said distance measuring device which are analyzed to identify the rail head and the presence of a joint bar, said system controller responsive to identification of the presence of the joint bar to determine a vertical and horizontal position of an outside vertical surface of the joint bar relative to the rail head, and wherein said system controller outputs control information to said test assembly to actuate said transducer actuator assembly to selectively position said ultrasonic transducer assembly against the outside vertical surface of the joint bar.