Recent Developments with the Dripless Bubbler Ultrasonic Scanner

In keeping with the requirements of the air carrier maintenance community, we have developed a closed-cycle, water-coupled, ultrasonic method using a focused-beam broadband pulse for the nondestructive inspection (NDI) of adhesively bonded aluminum and composite aircraft fuselage structures. This approach, known as the “Dripless Bubbler” technique, is a combination of focused-beam immersion ultrasonics with portable ultrasonic scanners[1–4]. The Dripless Bubbler retains the high quality associated with focused-beam immersion ultrasonics, eliminates uncontained couplant water; and more importantly, it provides the capability to ultrasonically scan the exterior of an aircraft over surface protrusions such as button-head rivets and lap splice edges