Hull Ultrasonic Thickness Inspection

Hull inspections keep crew, ship, and cargo safe at sea. Not only is it plain good sense to periodically ensure the seaworthiness of any vessel, but it can also be required by law. Ultrasonic non destructive testing equipment is one tool in the surveyors hand that has the ability to discover many defects.

Ultrasonic nondestructive testing, such as ultrasonic hull inspections, improve technician’s abilities to detect deterioration, damage repairs, or defects along with checking hull thickness. Ultrasonic testing, in particular, allows operators to more effectively map corrosion and measure hull thickness than visual inspections alone. The primary benefit is the ability to check thickness and abnormalities on the interior of the hull, in areas which no visual inspection can be made.

Ultrasonic testing equipment uses acoustic waves to examine the interior of objects. A probes transmits and receive waves, then calculates the interior thickness based on the returning signal’s delay. The longer or shorter delay times indicates variances in thickness or the presence of internal cracks or voids.