Plastic shoe aids inspection of thin walled stainless steel welded tubing to locate voids or other material defects in critical component equipment. Incorporated in available ultrasonic inspection equipment, it couples the transducer to the tube at desired incident angles

Lambermeyer, D. J.

Peterson, R. M.

English

NASA Technical Reports Server

December 1967
	
Brief 67-10542 
tU! Co.
AEC-NASA TECH BRIEF 
TES
AEC-NASA Tech Briefs describe innovations resulting from the research and development program 
of the U.S. AEC or from AEC-NASA interagency efforts. They are issued to encourage commercial 
application. Tech Briefs are published by NASA and may be purchased, at 15 cents each, from 
the Clearinghouse for Federal Scientific and Technical Information, Springfield, Virginia 22151. 
Plastic Shoe Facilitates Ultrasonic Inspection of Thin Wall Metal Tubing 
To Reflectorscope L — Transducer 
Plastic Shoe 
Thin Wall Tube 77 Sound Wave 
Propagation 
+ 
The problem: 
To inspect thin walled stainless steel welded tubing 
to locate voids or other material defects in critical 
component equipment. 
The solution: 
Incorporate a plastic shoe in available ultrasonic 
inspection equipment, to couple the transducer to the 
tube at desired incident angles. 
How it's done: 
As shown in the illustration (not to scale), a plas-
tic shoe is fabricated with a curvature that corresponds 
to the tube wall. The tube wall surface and the plane 
surface of the shoe are coated with water soluble glu-
cose. This coating couples the transducer to the metal 
tubing, permits the transducer to be moved varying 
distances from the tube centerline, and allows the 
plastic shoe to be rotated about the tube circum-
ference or length. By preselected movement of the 
transducer back and forth from the tube centerline, 
desired incident angles of sound propagation through-
out the tube wall can be obtained. This technique
permits complete and thorough inspection of the 
metal tube in locating internal defects. 
Note: 
Inquiries concerning this innovation may be di-
rected to:
Technology Utilization Officer 
AEC-NASA Space Nuclear Propulsion 
Office 
U.S. Atomic Energy Commission 
Washington, D.C. 20545 
Reference: B67-10542 
Patent status: 
No patent action is contemplated by AEC or 
NASA.
Source: R. M. Peterson and D. J. Lambermeyer
of Aerojet General Corp.
under contract to
AEC-NASA Space Nuclear Propulsion Office 
(NUC- 10010) 
Category 02 
This document was prepared under the sponsorship of the Atomic 	 liability resulting from the use of the information contained in this 
Energy Commission and/or the National Aeronautics and Space document, or warrants that the use of any information, apparatus, 
Administration. Neither the United States Government nor any per-	 method, or process disclosed in this document may not infringe pri-
son acting on behalf of the United States Government assumes any vately owned rights. 
I
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Plastic shoe facilitates ultrasonic inspection of thin wall metal tubing

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