Zero-Defect Manufacturing and Automated Defect Detection Using Time of Flight Diffraction (TOFD) Images

Ultrasonic time-of-flight diffraction (TOFD) is a non-destructive testing (NDT) technique for weld inspection that has gained popularity in the industry, due to its ability to detect, position, and size defects based on the time difference of the echo signal. Although the TOFD technique provides high-speed data, ultrasonic data interpretation is typically a manual and time-consuming process, thereby necessitating a trained expert. The main aim of this work is to develop a fully automated defect detection and data interpretation approach that enables predictive maintenance using signal and image processing. Through this research, the characterization of weld defects was achieved by identifying the region of interest from A-scan signals, followed by segmentation. The experimental results were compared with samples of known defect size for validation; it was found that this novel method is capable of automatically measuring the defect size with considerable accuracy. It is anticipated that using such a system will significantly increase inspection speed, cost, and safety.