Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Technical Review
    Vol. 54 No. 4 (2017)   Aerospace Technology
    Technical Papers

    State-of-the-art Nondestructive Inspection Technology for Composite Materials

    MITSUYOSHI UEMATSU
    TAKAHITO SHIMOMUKAI
    YOSHIHARU KUZE
    HIROSHI TAKEMOTO
    SEIJI KOBAYASHI
    SHOGO TANAKA

    Due to the advantages of lightweight, high strength and corrosion resistance, the application of composite materials to aerospace equipment structural materials has been increasing. For this reason, nondestructive inspection technologies for ensuring the quality of composite material products are required to enable highly accurate and highly efficient evaluation. Therefore, we are promoting the application examination and development of time-reversal phased array ultrasonic testing technology for complex shapes, near infrared optical coherence tomography technology that efficiently measures the height of surface wrinkle (fiber waviness), laser bond inspection technology for detection of weak bonds that cannot be detected by conventional nondestructive inspection, and simplified impact damage inspection technology that can be performed by uncertified operators.