Patent ID: 6925882

Claim:
A versatile, compact, lightweight ultrasonic probe to inspect a component having spot welds between plates not requiring the immersion of the component in a liquid bath for inspection, comprises: a housing disposed to be hand held and manually moved along a surface of said component with said housing having a narrow tip disposed to engage said surface of said component to be tested; a reservoir within said housing disposed to contain and disperse a couplant to said surface of said component as said component is inspected; an ultrasonic transducer within said housing disposed to direct an ultrasonic signal through said narrow tip and said couplant to said component during inspection and to receive a return signal from said component through said narrow tip and said couplant from said component; and an encoder coupled to said housing and disposed to engage said component to detect a distance of travel of said housing during inspection relative to a reference point on the component.