DETERMINATION OF POSITIONAL INFORMATION WITH A 6-D MOUSE DURING THE ULTRASONIC INSPECTION OF HIGH-VOLTAGE INSULATION

In this paper details are presented of a system developed to inspect h igh voltage insulation using ultrasound. Such insulation is typically in the form of resin/polyurethane impregnated paper or polyurethane ar ound a central core of copper or brass. The system is based on a stand ard PC collecting, processing and displaying ultrasound and positional data from two peripheral devices. Ultrasound information is passed to the PC in the form of A-scans produced by a proprietary NDT device. P ositional information is provided by a 6-D 'mouse' and comprises both x-y-z coordinates and the orientation angles of the mouse with respect to a reference unit. The information is combined to quickly give a si mple colour map of a sample being tested non-destructively, based on e ither signal depth or amplitude.