Patent ID: 8109147

Claim:
A method for an imaging ultrasonic inspection of a three-dimensional workpiece, in which ultrasonic waves are coupled into the workpiece with at least one ultrasonic transducer and ultrasonic waves reflected within the workpiece are received by ultrasonic transducers and converted into ultrasonic signals forming a basis for non-destructive imaging ultrasonic inspection, comprising: a) n ultrasonic transducers disposed in a three-dimensional distribution positioned around a rod-shaped workpiece moving along a production line and a first ultrasonic transducer or a first group i of ultrasonic transducers is or are activated to provide acoustic irradiation of a first ultrasonic field or i ultrasonic fields into the workpiece without contact or via a coupling medium, wherein i<n; b) receiving ultrasonic waves reflected within the workpiece with m ultrasonic transducers provided in a three-dimensional distribution around the workpiece and generating m ultrasonic time signals containing amplitude information in a temporally resolved fashion; c) storing the m ultrasonic time signals; d) activating another ultrasonic transducer or another group i of ultrasonic transducers differing from the first group by at least one ultrasonic transducer and carrying out steps b) and c), wherein activation, reception and storage occur in one cycle; e) carrying out step d) repeatedly, wherein another ultrasonic transducer or another group of i ultrasonic transducers is selected, so that the another ultrasonic transducer or the another group of i ultrasonic transducers differs from an already selected ultrasonic transducer or from an already selected group of i ultrasonic transducers; f) reconstructing volumetric images, B-images and/or A-images by utilizing the stored ultrasonic time signals that are recorded in a sequence of cycles and stored; and wherein g) a sum of the ultrasonic time signals represents the acoustic irradiation of the workpiece by all n ultrasonic transducers.