Abstract
A traversing infra-red inspection system (TIRIS) was designed primarily for high-volume production inspection of C-5 aircraft fail-safe strap panels. These panels are boundd laminates of 0.5 mm thick titanium and 3.2 mm thick aluminium. The system is flexible enough to be used for the development of special techniques such as the detection of entrapped water in aluminium honeycomb and the inspection of advanced structural composites. The system injects heat into the panels by means of hot-air guns. Imperfections as small as 7.62 mm in diameter are displayed on a 200 × 250 mm cathode ray tube in real time. The inspection scanning rate is 0.07 m 2s −1. A Polaroid camera is used to produce thermograms which define the size and shape of voids, disbonds, and delaminations which are located directly on the panels with a unique marking device. Principles of operation are explained in detail with the aid of representative thermograms made with the system. A black-body calibration device and special facilities were also designed for the system. It was found that no emissivity coating is required for the inspection of the fail-safe panels because of the surface characteristics of titanium.
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