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Up Topic Welding Industry / General Welding Discussion / Anyone ever play with UT equipment?
- - By smithcd2208 (**) Date 04-22-2010 05:29
My instructor recently acquired the EPOCH LTC from Olympus NDT. He showed it to us in the morning class and i stayed after during the afternoon class for a little while playing with it. I didn't get to adjust any of the parameters because he had it all calibrated, but i did start reading through the owners manual. I would like to try my hand at calibrating it sometime myself and using some of the features. I guess all i want to know is how many of you have ever used UT equipment and did you enjoy doing it? Just from what i did today i think it would be very fun and interesting work if you have learned to use it properly. What my instructor had done was use a piece of 1" plate with a hole drilled into it for demonstration purposes. Showing how the hole caused a blip that exceeded the gate and then how it measured the distance and depth. Then that you move along side it to figure the length. It was really cool. Are there any cool stories about UT tests?
Parent - By jwright650 (*****) Date 04-22-2010 11:08
Yeah, I use UT quite often in my daily duties here on my job. Learning to calibrate the machine and knowing why it does what it does is half the battle. Use the search function here in the forum and you'll find plenty of UT stories.
Parent - - By fbrieden (***) Date 04-22-2010 13:35
I use a USN 58L at the school in which I teach. We cover basic principles of UT and it's applications. The students are taught, and must demonstrate shear wave calibration on an IIW block, a DSC block, as well as straight beam distance/sensitivity calibration on the IIW block. It's interesting to see the reaction of high school kids to concepts which are foreign to many people. The calculations involved also helps them realize why math is a very important subject in school.
Parent - - By 803056 (*****) Date 04-22-2010 13:58 Edited 04-22-2010 14:14
Good points.

One of the problems a student faces is how all the force-fed information is applicable in the real word.

Speaking for myself, half the information they were teaching me in high school was just so much useless dribble. My shop classes were where I was able to put some of the information to use and it became relevant. A couple of teaches did excel at tying classroom lessons to real world situations. I looked forward to their classes and dreaded the others.

It sounds like you are doing it right. Keep up the good work.

As for UT, I've been using UT in my work since 1985. I used it for checking welds early on, but now I use it as an investigative tool to assess the conditions of some of the world’s largest machines. Ultrasonic testing is very versatile. It can be used for a wide variety of applications. The medical industry uses it for checking the condition of a patient's heart and checking the development of a fetus just to list a couple applications. I use it to check material thickness, weld integrity, the soundness of forgings, look for developing cracks, etc.

I demonstrated my new UT machine to my grandsons (4 and 6-years old) to show them how it could detect the bones in my arm and the plate holding grandpa’s wrist together. Then I let them see the radiograph that shows the bones, plate, and all the “wood” screws holding everything together. They like the radiograph better.

Best regards - Al
Parent - By joe pirie (***) Date 04-22-2010 14:28
Going back to school at an older age to learn NDE to enhance my new career
as an inspector was quite an eye opening experience. I always considered
myself pretty good in math in school Algebra,geometry, a little trig used in
pipefitting formulas  but when I took my first UT class my head was spinning
with all the math. In the beginning I just could'nt get it this math was like a
foreign language. My 13 year old is quite smart and is in advanced math at an early age
boy did I feel stupid asking her for help with my homework. I was lucky enough to work
on a project where there was alot of downtime and i befriended their level 2 UT Tech.
Nothing beats hands on individual training.  He would show me over and over how to
calibrate the machine for shear wave and straight beam.  If he found a discontuitity
on a weld  he would have me retest the weld to see if I could locate it. It was quite fascinating
learning this technology. In this industry the testing equipment is constantly changing and improving
and you have to continually learn and adapt or you will be left behind. Pay Attention , don't be
afraid to ask questions.  Joe
Parent - - By smithcd2208 (**) Date 04-23-2010 04:50
After playing with the unit we have for a little bit i took a real interest in it and i think after i have had some experience in industry i want to go to school more to learn all about UT and become an inspector myself. I'm in my final quarter of school and don't even have any on the job welding experience, but it's always good to have goals.
Parent - - By dmilesdot (**) Date 04-23-2010 09:41
In my opinion ultrasonics is the most fasinating non destructive testing method.  Unlike magnetic particle or penetrant methods, ultrasonics allows you to probe the material or welds like no other method.  In recent years ut has been advanced by computer technology to a point of being state of the art in material and welding exams.  If you get the "bug" to learn UT go to formal training at one of the many schools around the country.  Krautkramer, Hellier are but a few of the better ones.  The math portion can be a bit daunting at first, but once you understand the formulas you will use pretty much the same ones over and over.  I started my ut experience in the hey day of nuclear construction so I had the opportunity to learn from different guys and you will find that different level II's have different ideas about how to accomplish the same task.  Its all good when you learn different ways of doing things.  UT takes a lot of time to master, so if you get in, stay for the long haul.  Understanding the codes that you will work with is another hurdle, but if you stick with it, you wont be disappointed.
Dave
Parent - By smithcd2208 (**) Date 04-24-2010 00:09
Thanks for the reply. I think it would benefit me most to weld for a while first and of course that would get me familiar with the codes. I'm not worried about the math because i have always been pretty good at learning. If/when i decide i want to learn it i will definitely go to a real school for it. My instructor at college has started a new system where he will have prospective students take the ASVAB to determine if they will be successful in his welding program or if they might want to consider enrolling in a different degree program. The students in this quarter were his first run to take the ASVAB. He is going to use the scores of graduates as baselines to compare prospective students to. We got our scores today and i did really well on it, so i think i can really take my career any direction i want to.
Parent - By Metarinka (****) Date 04-26-2010 16:44
yah we used to play around with the equipment. You can detect heart beats with them. Tried to find a pregnant lady to see if we could see the baby.

In a jam anything will work as a couplant including hand lotions, or jam's and jellies, jello works well too.

and I agree UT is fun.  With some basic trig and angle blocks  you can also find out how thick material is to pretty good accuracy. Very useful technology
- By cepennington (*) Date 04-24-2010 15:20
I would recommend learning on a really old machine such as a USK-7. Then graduate up to the USN 58L or EPOCH 1000. The k-7 teaches you to read the A-Scan and operate basic functions without all the bells and whistles getting in the way.
Up Topic Welding Industry / General Welding Discussion / Anyone ever play with UT equipment?

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