Means and method for ultrasonic measurement of material properties

Claim 3

The method of claim 1 wherein at least one transducer is a Lamb wave producing transducer.

Claim 4

The method of claim 1 wherein at least one transducer includes a magnet, the magnet being a pulsed electromagnet.

Claim 5

The method of claim 1 wherein a metal plate having a rolling direction is measured by orienting the array of transducers in relationship to the rolling direction of metal plate.

Claim 6

The method of claim 4 wherein the array of transducers is angularly adjustable between at least 0°, 45° and 90° with respect to the rolling direction of the plate.

Claim 7

The method of claim 1 wherein at least one transducer is a horizontally polarized shear wave producing transducer.

Claim 8

The method of claim 1 wherein at least one transducer includes a magnet, the magnet being a permanent magnet.

Claim 11

The method of claim 8 wherein the ultrasonic waves are Lamb waves generated in ferrous materials with said electromagnetic acoustic transducers each including at least one pulsed electromagnet.

Claim 12

The method of claim 8 wherein the ultrasonic waves are horizontally polarized shear waves generated in ferrous materials with said electromagnetic acoustic transducers including at least one pulsed electromagnet.

Claim 13

The method of claim 8 wherein the ultrasonic waves are Lamb waves generated in non-ferrous materials with said electromagnetic acoustic transducers including at least one permanent magnet.

Claim 14

The method of claim 8 wherein the ultrasonic waves are horizontally polarized shear waves generated in non-ferrous materials with said electromagnetic acoustic transducers including at least one permanent magnet.

Claim 15

A field instrument for ultrasonic measurement of texture, stress and related material properties including but not limited to formability comprising: a portable housing including control means, transducer array head connection means, first and second operation circuit means, processing means, and power supply connection means for connecting electrical power to the field instrument; one or more transducer array heads connectable to the transducer array head connection means; an array of electromagnetic acoustic transducers positioned in each transducer array head, each array including electromagnetic acoustic transducers having a means to establish a magnetic bias field; the first operation circuit means for firing at least two transducers of each array including firing first and second transducers of an array in series to create first and second ultrasonic bursts; the second operation circuit means for measuring reception of the bursts of ultrasonic energy at a third transducer of the array as a function of time; the processing means for processing information received at the third transducer and including means for Fourier transforming the measurements as a function of time to convert the information from a time domain to a frequency domain for inferring velocities of ultrasound from variation of phase of Fourier transforms of the information with frequency, and for deriving one or more of texture, stress, formability or related parameters by correlation with the velocities; the array head connection means allowing connection of a desired array of transducers for a measurement purpose; and the control means allowing control of the operation circuit means and processing means.

Claim 16

A field instrument for ultrasonic measurement of texture, stress and related material properties including but not limited to formability comprising: a portable housing including control means, transducer array head connection means, first and second operation circuit means, processing means, and power supply connection means for connecting electrical power to the field instrument; one or more transducer array heads connectable to the transducer array head connection means; an array of electromagnetic acoustic transducers positioned in each transducer array head, each array including electromagnetic acoustic transducers having a means to establish a magnetic bias field; the first operation circuit means for firing at least two transducers of each array including firing first and second transducers of an array in series to create first and second ultrasonic bursts; the second operation circuit means for measuring reception of the bursts of ultrasonic energy at a third transducer of the array as a function of time; the processing means for processing information received at the third transducer and including means for Fourier transforming the measurements as a function of time to convert the information from a time domain to a frequency domain for inferring velocities of ultrasound from variation of phase of Fourier transforms of the information with frequency, and for deriving one or more of texture, stress, formability or related parameters by correlation with the velocities; the array head connection means allowing connection of a desired array of transducers for a measurement purpose; and the control means allowing control of the operation circuit means and processing means.

Claim 17

The field instrument of claim 13 wherein at least one electromagnetic acoustic transducer of the array includes a pulsed electromagnet.

Claim 18

The field instrument of claim 13 wherein at least one of the electromagnetic acoustic transducers of the array includes a permanent magnet.

Claim 19

A field instrument for ultrasonic nondestructive measurement of at least one of texture, stress, or related material properties including but not limited to formability, comprising: a portable housing including: (a) user control means for operating the instrument; (b) processing means for data acquisition, processing of data, providing instructions for driving signals according to input from the user control means; and (c) probe control means to provide the driving signals to a probe means for transmitting and receiving ultrasound according to instructions from the processing means; the probe means being moveably positionable relative to the housing for placement at or near a material being measured; a connection means operatively connecting the probe means to the housing; and one or more arrays of electromagnetic acoustic transducers positioned in the probe means, each array consisting of at least one set of two transmitting electromagnetic acoustic transducers connected in series electrically, and at least one receiving electromagnetic transducer.

Claim 20

A field instrument for ultrasonic nondestructive measurement of at least one of texture, stress, or related material properties including but not limited to formability, comprising: a portable housing including: (a) user control means for operating the instrument; (b) processing means for data acquisition, processing of data, providing instructions for driving signals according to input from the user control means; and (c) probe control means to provide the driving signals to a probe means for transmitting and receiving ultrasound according to instructions from the processing means; the probe means being moveably positionable relative to the housing for placement at or near a material being measured; a connection means operatively connecting the probe means to the housing; and one or more arrays of electromagnetic acoustic transducers positioned in the probe means, each array consisting of at least one set of two transmitting electromagnetic acoustic transducers connected in series electrically, and at least one receiving electromagnetic transducer.

Claim 21

The instrument of claim 16 wherein at least one array includes pulsed electromagnetic acoustic transducers for generating Lamb waves to measure texture in a ferrous material.

Claim 22

The instrument of claim 16 wherein at least one array includes pulsed electromagnetic acoustic transducers for generating horizontally polarized shear weaves to measure stress in a ferrous material.

Claim 23

The instrument of claim 16 wherein at least one array includes permanent magnet electromagnetic acoustic transducers for generating Lamb waves to measure texture in a non-ferrous material.

Claim 24

The instrument of claim 16 wherein at least one array includes permanent magnet electromagnetic acoustic transducers for generating horizontally polarized shear waves to measure stress in a non-ferrous material.

Claim 25

The instrument of claim 16 further comprising two or more probe means, an array of electromagnetic acoustic transducers in each probe means being selected from the set consisting of pulsed and permanent magnet electromagnetic acoustic transducers.

Claim 26

The instrument of claim 21 wherein the electromagnetic acoustic transducers include a pulsed electromagnet to measure stress in ferrous materials.

Claim 27

The instrument of claim 21 wherein the electromagnetic acoustic transducers include a permanent magnet for measuring stress in non-ferrous materials.

Claim 28

The instrument of claim 21 wherein the electromagnetic acoustic transducers includes a pulsed electromagnet to measure texture in ferrous materials.

Claim 29

The instrument of claim 21 wherein the electromagnetic acoustic transducers includes permanent magnet for measuring texture in non-ferrous materials.