RUV in Production: Rings and Fingers

Ceramic parts can have different sizes and shapes. However all bear the common issue of mechanical stability in terms of cracks, which compromise parts strength and lead to part failure in a production system. RUV technology was adapted to this problem with two examples detailed below.

Ceramic Rings

Cracks in ceramic rings can be visualized using the dye penetration technique. This approach is labor-intense and invasive. RUV method provides 100% inspection accuracy of closed cracks even when ceramic is coated with a metal layer (for future part brazing). Figure 1 shows RUV scans of (a) good non-cracked ring and (b) identical size ring with invisible crack confirmed by Scanning Acoustic Microscopy. Each sample was measured three times at different ring orientation concerning to probe-transducer axes. This algorithm provides highly accurate crack inspection in rings. RUV tool is fully automated by Ultrasonic Technologies, and operates 24/7 in ring production with a throughput of 240 parts per hour (ref: Video Gallery).

Ceramic Fingers

These parts have broad application in advanced micromechanical systems used in the medical industry (see part pictures below). Cracks in ceramic fingers have a detrimental effect on product reliability and safety and therefore, must be eliminated before their installation. Ultrasonic Technologies jointly with finger manufacturer performed a development and upgrade of the RUV technology to achieve 100% crack reduction that occurs below 0.2% level. RUV scans of 20 good fingers are compared to cracked fingers as presented in Figure 2.

(a) No Crack

High resolution Scanning Acoustic Microscopy of ceramic fingers Crack left side on Ceramic Fingers

(b) Crack (left side)

High resolution Scanning Acoustic Microscopy of ceramic fingers Crack bottom on Ceramic Fingers

High resolution Scanning Acoustic Microscopy of ceramic fingers (a) good sample (b) and (c) cracked samples.
Each sample size is 12mm x 8mm x 0.76mm.

CR2 RUV scans on 20 Good fingers and cracked fingers (red line)

CR 4 RUV scans on 20 Good fingers and cracked fingers (red line)

Figure 2: RUV scans on 20 Good fingers and cracked fingers (red line)

The system utilizes a concept of fast, non-destructive measurements on increasing the yield of the production lines. RUV system is a computer controlled unit with Windows-based software providing the system operation, data acquisition and data processing.
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