On the roadmap · planned
Ultrasonic testing for welds and structures.
Ultrasonic testing sends high-frequency sound into a part and listens for the echoes that come back from flaws and boundaries. It is the workhorse of industrial NDE, and it is next in line for the Sondera pipeline, so the same AI signal processing and decision support that power terahertz can carry over to UT.
The modality
Sound that finds flaws deep in metal.
An ultrasonic transducer, coupled to the surface, launches a short pulse of high-frequency sound, typically a few megahertz, into the part. The pulse travels through the material until it meets something with a different acoustic impedance: a crack, a void, an inclusion, a bond line, or the back wall. Each of those reflects part of the energy back to the transducer.
The instrument records the returning echoes as an A-scan, amplitude against time. The arrival time of an echo gives the depth of the reflector, and its amplitude relates to size. Move the transducer across the surface and those A-scans build into B-scans and C-scans that map a flaw through the volume.
What it measures
What ultrasound reveals.
Cracks and planar flaws
Fatigue cracks, lack of fusion, and other planar defects reflect strongly and are located by echo timing.
Wall thickness and corrosion
Back-wall echoes give precise thickness, so thinning from corrosion or erosion is tracked over time.
Weld integrity
Porosity, slag, lack of fusion, and incomplete penetration in welds, the classic ultrasonic inspection.
Bond and laminate integrity
Disbonds and delaminations in bonded joints and layered structures show up as unexpected interface echoes.
How it works
From an A-scan to a signed-off report.
Couple and pulse
A transducer is coupled to the surface and fires a megahertz pulse. Phased-array probes steer and focus the beam.
Capture the A-scan
The reflected waveform carries an echo from every reflector the beam met, from a flaw to the back wall.
AI signal processing
Denoising and deconvolution sharpen overlapping echoes and lift indications out of grain noise in coarse materials.
Detect and size
Models locate reflectors, estimate flaw size and depth, and attach a confidence measure to every call.
Map to a decision
Results are compared against code acceptance criteria and assembled into a traceable report.
Why ultrasonic
Deep, quantitative, and code-backed.
Where terahertz stops at conductive materials, ultrasound goes right through them. For metals and thick sections it is often the only volumetric option, and it is written into inspection codes worldwide.
- Penetrates metals and thick sections other methods cannot
- Volumetric: finds flaws through the depth, not just at the surface
- Quantitative: echo timing and amplitude give depth and size
- Portable and fast, from a handheld probe to phased array
- Backed by established inspection codes and procedures
Where it fits
Built for metals and welds.
Ultrasound and terahertz are complementary: sound for metals and depth, terahertz for composites and coatings. Sondera aims to bring both onto one pipeline.
How it joins the platform
The pipeline is ready. The front end is next.
Ultrasonic is planned, not yet live. The detection, confidence, decision support, and reporting that power the terahertz module are modality-agnostic, so bringing UT on is mainly a matter of the physics-specific front end: beam modeling, A-scan signal processing, and training data from simulation and reference blocks. If ultrasonic is where your inspection problems live, tell us, and it moves up the roadmap.
Want ultrasonic sooner?
Ultrasonic is on the roadmap. Tell us about your UT inspection problem or send us data to analyze, and help us prioritize what comes after terahertz.