Patent ID: 7926350

Claim:
A method for non-destructive inspection of a test body using ultrasound, in which at least one ultrasonic transducer couples ultrasonic waves into the test body and ultrasonic waves reflected inside the test body are received by ultrasonic transducers and converted into ultrasonic signals, which form a basis for non-destructive inspection, comprising: providing n distributed ultrasonic transducers disposed in an array on a surface of the test body and activating of at least one group of i of the n ultrasonic transducers so that i ultrasonic wave fronts which are coupled into the test body are superimposed to form a wave front propagating substantially uniformly spatially distributed inside the test body; receiving of the ultrasonic waves reflected inside the test body with m ultrasonic transducers provided on the surface of the test body and generating m ultrasonic time signals containing time-resolved amplitude information; storing the m ultrasonic time signals; and reconstructing a 3-dimensional volumetric image, a 2-dimensional ultrasonic sectional image through the test body or an A-image comprising a 1-dimensional time-resolved and locally resolved ultrasonic echo signal along a given irradiation angle solely using at least one part of the m ultrasonic time signals; and wherein 3≦i≦n and the i ultrasonic transducers are disposed on the surface of the test body and excited in a time-delayed manner with transmission impulses so that a wave front propagating cylindrically or spherically from the i ultrasonic transducers forms inside the test body.