Angle beam probe : Angle probes are used for detecting flaws oriented at an angle to the material surface.

They will miss flat reflectors, parallel or perpendicular to the scanning surface. The angled beam must hit the reflecting plane of the discontinuity at 900 for maximum reflection. Angle beam reflects well from corners but may undergo wave mode conversion. Usually shear wave probes are used in angle beam testing, because the refracted longitudinal wave probe will have a shear wave component of weaker intensity in the test material. Longitudinal wave angle probes are specially useful for testing austenitic stainless steel welds and inside surface of highly curved hollow parts and welds. Shear wave probes are used for testing welds, material defects in pipes, tubes, plates and sheets and in irregular shapes where full contact testing area is not available. Angle beam probes use the principle of refraction and mode conversion to produce refracted longitudinal and shear waves in the test part. In an angle beam probe, longitudinal wave is converted to refracted longitudinal or shear wave by means of an angled plastic wedge. The wedge is cut at an angle to provide an incident beam angle to produce refracted longitudinal or shear wave at the desired angle in Steel, because steel is tested in most applications. For designing small crystal low frequency probes, incident angle calculation based on snells law fails because of wider beam spread associated with these probes. The refracted angles will change in other materials because of velocity difference. A probe of 450 in steel will equal 430 in aluminum. The wedges have serrations cut on the front surface and fitted with absorbing medium to prevent internal reflections from producing unwanted echoes but some spurious echoes are often detectable just after the initial pulse. The wedge can be an integral part or can be detachable. In detachable system, a single transducer can be configured to different angles by changing the wedge and is economical. The detachable wedges are bigger and absorbs more energy. The detachable type requires couplant between the transducer and the wedge to permit transmission of ultrasound into the wedge. Standard angles are 35, 45, 60, 70 and 800 in steel. 800 and 350 probes have limited applications due to prevalence of surface waves from 800 and presence of longitudinal waves from 350 probes. Crystal sizes around 10 mm for miniature and 20 mm for bigger probes are most popular. Probes with 12.5 mm crystal size is normally recommended for standard test applications. Rectangular crystals are often used. Bigger probes have higher sensitivity and sharply focused sound beam and permit flaw detection at higher depth but cannot be placed very close to the weld edge. 4 MHz, 8 X 9 / 10 mm probes are very popular for their small contact area, high resolution and sharp echoes and are used up to a test distance of 200 mm in steel. Larger probes are mostly used for thick welds and for applications where sufficient probe contact area is available and a large area is to be scanned. A 20 X 22 mm, 2 MHz probe can detect a 2 mm reflector up to a distance of 700 mm. Twin crystal angle probes, longitudinal and shear, are available for direct scanning on ground weld surfaces and low thickness materials. These probes are more suitable for testing stainless steel and sound absorbing materials. With use, the beam exit point and the refracted beam angle will change with acrylic wear and should be checked before each use. The beam angle change should be controlled within + / - 20. New acrylic soles can be pasted with araldite to repair the wear. The front corner of the sole should be shaped to reduce spurious echoes. Performance : A good angle probe with a standard flaw detector, should produce a minimum 75% signal from the 100 mm radius of a standard IIW - V1 block with a minimum of 40 dB gain reserve. The probe should resolve at least three of the five holes [ clearly detectable peaks ] in the IOW beam profile block. Noise from internal reflections should not exceed 5% screen height, at all the working test sensitivity levels. Beam axis abnormality should be checked by maximizing a signal and moving the probe forward and backward and rotating left and right, while monitoring the falling signal. The signal should fall continuously without any sudden rise in signal height. Compiled by K. Chatterjee, 75643 Center for NDT P 00 Rv 05 Self study material.