EPSRC Impact Acceleration Account (IAA) funding

High Temperature Ultrasonic Imaging Transducer for In-Process Inspection

High Value Manufacturing (HVM) is an essential component of the UK economy, contributing strongly to our economic prosperity and engineering status around the world. The growth in HVM sectors such as aerospace, nuclear and energy, has accentuated the requirement for rapid, reliable and high quality Non-Destructive Evaluation (NDE) to inspect key components. In-Process inspection offers the potential for lower cost, higher throughput inspection by ensuring the right product is built first time. One of the challenges that hinders the deployment of in-process ultrasonic inspection is the temperature operational limits of traditional ultrasonic imaging devices to below 60 Celsius. This IAA submission seeks to build new partnership between Ionix Advanced Technologies and the Centre for Ultrasonic Engineering (CUE), a company that specialises in materials for measurement in extreme environments. By exploiting CUE research developments in advanced transduction technology and in-process Automated NDE sensor deployment, the proposed collaboration will investigate high-temperature (> 300 degC) next generation ultrasonic devices utilising Ionix’s high-performance piezoelectric materials that can operate in high temperature (HT) environments, unlocking current bottlenecks in manufacturing inspection.