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.