Patent ID: 7284434

Claim:
A dripless acoustic inspection device for a workpiece comprising: a housing including: a main body portion having a closed proximate end and an open distal end with side walls extending between said proximate and distal ends defining a cavity between said closed proximate end and side walls; and a lower body portion having open proximate and distal ends defining a center passage between said proximate and distal ends with the proximate end of the lower body portion affixed to the distal end of said main body portion; an ultrasonic transducer captured within said closed proximate end of said main body portion; and a flexible membrane across said center passage of the lower body portion in close proximity to, and spaced-apart from said distal end of said lower body portion with said flexible membrane defining at least one substantially centered hole of a selected small size therethrough; a first chamber is defined between said ultrasonic transducer and said flexible membrane and a second chamber is defined between said flexible membrane and the distal end of said lower body portion with said second chamber being substantially smaller than said first chamber, with each of said first and second chambers disposed to contain a liquid couplant; said main body portion defines a couplant input port through a side wall into said first chamber below said ultrasonic transducer disposed to input, and maintain, couplant in said first chamber and said at least one substantially centered hole in said flexible membrane disposed to pass couplant therethrough to said second chamber from said first chamber; and the size of said at least one substantially centered hole in said flexible membrane is large enough to permit couplant to flow therethrough when said couplant is input and small enough such that surface tension of said couplant prevents couplant from flowing from said first chamber into said second chamber when couplant is not input.