Inspection of Ceramic Ball Bearings by Differential-Phase Acoustic Microscopy

The proposed innovation is to apply differential phase acoustic microscopy to NDE inspection of ceramic Sn3N4 ball bearings. Differential phase acoustic microscopy is more sensitive than standard acoustic microscopy, and can provide the location and size of defects, which is a specific goal of the subtopic. The specific goal of this research is to assess the feasibility of differential phase acoustic microscopy for NDE of ball bearings by modifying a currently available 50 MHz differential phase acoustic microscope to scan bearings for surface and subsurface defects. The accuracy of defect detection, as well as optimal methods of scanning and coupling ultrasound will be investigated. Based on Phase I results, an automated Phase II prototype will be proposed.