Solution
The technicians carried out a visual inspection of the surface of the component, looking for any indications of cracks, laps, seams, folds or other damage. No visual indications were found, so the technicians proceeded to prepare the component for UT inspection. The aim of the UT was to inspect the component and identify any defects between the rim and wheel core boundary. Initially, a 0 degree normal beam probe was used, over a 50mm grid to detect lamination type flaws.
The UT found no defect indications, so the technicians decided to use a PAUT 45 degree shear wave probe. This provided 100% surface coverage, in both directions. No defect indications were detected, however the technique was able to detect several geometric signals giving confidence that the inspection would be capable of detecting both volumetric and favourable planar defects, if they had been present. Therefore, the UT/PAUT inspection ruled out any sub-surface flaws.