Metal Processing
Ultrasonic Quality Assurance for Steel, Aluminum, and Specialty Alloy Products
Primary metal production and secondary processing generate semi-finished and finished products—plates, bars, tubes, forgings, and rolled sections—that serve as raw material for virtually every manufacturing industry. Internal defects originating from melting, casting, rolling, and heat treatment processes must be detected before these materials enter downstream fabrication. Ultrasonic testing is the industry-standard volumetric inspection method for metal products, governed by standards including ASTM, ISO, EN, and GB/T series. CCNDT provides automated and manual ultrasonic inspection systems covering the full range of metal product forms and sizes.
Plate & Sheet Inspection
Steel and aluminum plates used in shipbuilding, bridge construction, pressure vessels, and structural applications require ultrasonic lamination and inclusion testing to verify internal soundness. Automated plate inspection systems with multi-channel probe arrays scan the full plate surface at production speed, detecting laminations, center-line segregation, and non-metallic inclusions that could compromise forming performance or structural integrity. Thickness gauging simultaneously verifies dimensional tolerances.
- Full-surface automated lamination and inclusion scanning per ASTM A578/A435
- Center-line segregation and internal discontinuity detection
- Simultaneous thickness gauging for dimensional verification
- Edge zone and trimmed area inspection for roll-bonded clad plates
Bar, Billet & Forging Testing
Round bars, billets, and forged components for aerospace, automotive, and oil & gas applications require thorough ultrasonic inspection for internal quality verification. Radial and axial scanning techniques detect pipe, centerline porosity, flakes, and non-metallic stringers in wrought products. For open-die and closed-die forgings, contour-following probes map internal soundness across varying cross-sections, identifying fold-over defects, unconsolidated regions, and quench cracks.
- Round bar and billet radial/axial scanning for pipe and inclusion detection
- Forging internal soundness mapping with contour-following probes
- Flake and hydrogen crack detection in alloy steel products
- Automated rotary inspection systems for high-throughput bar testing
Tube & Pipe Inspection
Seamless and welded tubes and pipes for boiler, heat exchanger, and structural applications undergo ultrasonic inspection for longitudinal and transverse defects, wall thickness verification, and weld seam quality assessment. Automated rotary or linear scanning systems with focused probes detect inner and outer surface cracks, laminations, and weld imperfections at line speeds. Electromagnetic-acoustic transducer (EMAT) technology enables non-contact inspection of hot or coated products.
- Seamless tube longitudinal and transverse defect detection per ISO 9303/9304
- Welded pipe seam weld automated ultrasonic inspection
- Wall thickness verification and eccentricity measurement
- EMAT non-contact inspection for hot or coated tube products
Talk to Our NDT Engineers
Tell us about your inspection target and we will recommend the right ultrasonic solution.