A New Micro Magnetic Bridge Probe in Magnetic Flux Leakage for Detecting Micro-cracks

Abstract

Magnetic flux leakage (MFL) testing has been widely used as an efficient non-destructive testing method to detect damage in ferromagnetic materials. It’s of great importance to improve the testing capability of MFL sensors. In this paper, a micro magnetic bridge method in MFL of high sensitivity is proposed to detect micro-cracks. This method consists of a micro magnetic bridge core and an induction coil. Furthermore, a novel micro magnetic bridge probe (MMBP) of higher spatial resolution is designed and developed with $$10~\upmu \hbox {m}$$ width between the two sides of this MMBP in the testing magnetic bridge. The lift-off effect of this new MMBP is studied via finite element method and experimental verification. The results show this MMBP can achieve high sensitivity only when working with a micro-lift-off value. To examine the detecting capability of this MMBP, micro-cracks in magnetic particle inspection sensitivity testing pieces are all inspected, and the lowest depth value is only $$7~\upmu \hbox {m}$$ . The MMBP in this paper improves the testing capability of MFL to the micrometre scale and can be widely used to detect grinding micro-cracks in bearing rings.