Patent ID: 6877894

Claim:
An apparatus for nondestructive testing, the apparatus comprising: an acoustic energy source comprising a probe face for delivering acoustic energy to a surface of a specimen; a fixture comprising a fixed base and a gripping mechanism holding the specimen relative to the fixed base to resist a contact force exerted by the probe face directly onto the specimen surface, the contact force comprising an axial component perpendicular to the specimen surface and a normal component parallel to the specimen surface, direct contact between the probe face and the specimen surface initially being point contact due to a non-parallel alignment of the probe face and the specimen surface; the fixture further comprising a compliant member not disposed between the probe face and the surface of the specimen and responsive only to the normal component of the contact force to rotate the gripping mechanism relative to the fixed base to position the probe face and the specimen surface into parallel direct contact to increase transmission of the acoustic energy there between relative to energy transmission though the point contact; and a thermal imaging apparatus for generating an image responsive to a temperature profile of the specimen under influence of the acoustic energy.