Rail Ultrasonic Automatic Flaw Detector Developed

With fast growth of railway transportation incorporating high speed and heavy duty rails, demands for effective inspection of steel rails for quality assurance has become increasingly stringent. Ultrasonic inspection is widely applied by the manufacturers to detect steel rail defects. The present research aims to deliver an automatic control system used for the steel rail automatic inspection system.Based on fundamental principal and method applied in steel rail ultrasonic inspection, general design concept and technical details are proposed for the automatic ultrasonic system integrating data acquisition, processing, saving, printing and control modules which are separately designed for easy expandability.The measurement and control software for the automatic ultrasonic inspection system is developed. A model for comprehensive analysis and process of ultrasonic echo signals is established. In addition, the object oriented method is used to realize high speed data acquisition, process, display and storage. To solve the problem of strong electromagnetic interference and ultrasonic interference from outer sources in field applications, a dynamic tracking and identification technique is successfully applied.Results from field operation show that all indices of measurement and control system can meet the design requirements and whole system is operated in a stable and secure state.