BeamTool 10

 

 

BeamTool 10

Fast, Easy, Open Technique Development For NDT

 

The industry's leading UT technique development software BeamTool continues to be developed and improved with the release of BeamTool 10. Successful inspections start with a plan and BeamTool makes it easy to model, validate and document your Phased Array, TOFD and Conventional Ultrasonic inspection plans with confidence.

 

New piece types

Two new Piece Templates have been added to BeamTool, a Lap Joint and a Nozzle weld. The Lap joint has the same configuration as a Plate plus controls for overlap and weld configuration. The Nozzle is 2 dimensions but you can toggle between a 0 degree aspect and 90 degrees, representing the minimum and maximum deflections found in the weld profiles.

 

Advanced FMC/TFM Focal Quality Map.

 

Built in simulation

The Simulation features previously separate from BeamTool are now included when upgrading to or purchasing BeamTool 10! Great as a training aid or for generating training material and conveying principles.

 

New report editor

The report editor has been rebuilt to allow easier configuration of the report contents. More options have been added as well including 3D views, drawing sets, and Calibration Block. The provided templates from previous versions as well as User designed ones can still be utilized.

 

Angle Inspector

Hover over intersecting lines with the Angle Inspector on, and the angle will be displayed overlaid on the workspace.

 

Auto Cal Block

The Standard Calibration Block feature now supports “Auto Cal Block” for curved pieces. Selecting this will create an ASME compliant block based on the thickness specified, adding notches and SDH’s. You can further modify to meet your specific need.

 

Square Caps

Welds can now be configured to have square caps, simulating ERW welds with the upset material removed.

 

Wedge Gap

A Wedge Gap drawing can be generated that will show the dimension of any gap between the wedge and the piece due to a mismatch in profiles.

 

New beam energy plot

The Beamset Beam Energy Plot has been updated and refined to display the maximum possible transmitted energy more accurately.

 

Curved calibration block & vertical holes

Piping or Curved Calibration Blocks are now supported in the standard calibration block designer included with BeamTool 10. Add notches in the circumferential plane and the curvature will be respected. Generate drawings that can be supplied to a machine shop. Vertical FBH’s and Through Holes are now supported for both flat and curved calibration blocks.

 

FMC Beamset Validation

BeamTool can help you choose an appropriate rendering region for an FMC inspections (currently only available for contact FMC inspections) by plotting a Quality Map, which roughly quantifies the resolution and image intensity of reflectors positioned with respect to the probe aperture. This map roughly quantifies the quality of focus for each pixel point in the chosen rendering region by computing the effective "Numerical Aperture", defined as sine of half of the angle between the first and last beams covering the pixel.

 

The concept of numerical aperture comes from microscopy and represents the angular coverage of a focal point. A low numerical aperture value implies that energy is not effectively focused at a particular point leading to poor resolution and low image intensity, whereas a high numerical aperture value means that energy is highly focused leading to high resolution and high image intensity.

 

 

NDT data import & data folding

BeamTool has the ability to import supported NDT data directly into the workspace! View and scroll through the data either as is, or folded along the sound path. Apply an Alpha Threshold to the data to remove noise and low amplitude signals. The Olympus NDT data Access Library is required to do this.

 

Sectorial Beamest Beam energy display

BeamTool now helps you to select the correct range of angles for Phased Array inspections by displaying the energy associated with each beam defined within a beamset. Low energy beams will be difficult to calibrate and require a large amount of gain to be properly normalized. Beams above 50% of the maximum possible transmitted energy are shown as green, between 10% - 50% shown as orange and below 10% are shown as red. The calculated energies take into account the directivity of the probe elements, the transmission coefficient between the wedge and the piece, as well as the reflection coefficients for each skip within the piece.

 

Clad Layer Inset

The Clad Layer in BeamTool is now Inset so that it is drawn in line with the weld bevel.

 

Spline CAD support

BeamTool can now import CAD drawings with Splines.

 

AOD & COD wedge curvature

AOD and COD profiled wedges can now be configured and pinned to your Circumferential and Axial Pieces.

 

DLA & DMA probes with focal law export

For multi-beam beamsets, you can highlight a single beam and also view its focal law delays.

 

Asymmetrical welds

Weld region parameters can be separately configured for the left and right side of the weld bevel.

 

Clad material support

A clad layer can now be added to a plate, T, axial or circumferential piece configuration.

 

Bitmap backdrops

Use the bitmap drawing tool to add images to your drawings. Bitmaps can be imported and scaled to be used as a backdrop or to use as a reference to trace over when drawing complex specimens.

 

Multi-Discipline Technique development

Techniques can be created using multiple probes and multiple disciplines within a single workspace. Combine Phased Array with Conventional UT and TOFD probe configurations to ensure complete coverage. Pitch-catch is a useful technique for viewing unfavourable weld bevels or targeting geometry. Simply select P/C in the phased array configuration and the BeamTool will solve and present the elements required; this feature can be set to reflect off the weld bevel face accounting for return refraction.

 

BeamTool makes it easy to develop pitch-catch techniques for direct and indirect inspection using a single probe or a pair of probes.

 

3D workspace view

The 3D view will display your piece, annotations, probes and beams in an interactive viewing environment. Rotation, Panning and Zooming tools; Mesh, Solid and Surface modeling modes; and Perspective and Orthographic projection modes all provide a powerful, intuitive, highly interactive modeling tool for visualizing your techniques like never before. And along with the new "Construct Top View" tool, simple custom-drawn pieces can quickly be given depth and viewed in 3D as well.

 

CAD Functionality

BeamTool integrates a powerful set of CAD tools that makes it easy to draw custom pieces to develop a scan plan for your inspection. Users can draw geometries of any shape and size and use the advanced ray tracing to accurately ensure and document proper coverage. The drawing tools have been greatly enhanced to make it even easier to draw and edit. Precision coordinate and size readout, along with the ability to snap and a Command Prompt for making complex specimen drawing precise, fast and easy. Multiple layers can be created to organize and filter your geometries.

 

Defects/Indication plotting

Defects/Indications can be entered into a table defining their spatial coordinates, then visualized on the workspace in 3D space. The amplitude of defects is visualized through a colored palettizer.

 

Configurable reporting

HTML standards-based reporting allows reports to be generated and shared across the web or email. Report content can be copied into other programs, such as Microsoft Word, and edited for final presentation. Users can easily customize or create new reports containing the information they need. The built-in HTML editor allows reports to be constructed in an environment similar to a common word processor. Workspace fields can be dragged from a field picker into the template for inclusion in the report.

 

This versatile tool simplifies the technique design, validation and reporting process and is adaptable for use by engineers, technicians, and auditors. If you are dealing with ultrasonic inspections and require the ability to visualize and document the applications, BeamTool will guide you through the process and produce the professional results industry demands.

 

Zonal Discrimination

BeamTool ZONAL Add-on provides the ability to define Weld Zones, which are used in conjunction with a Zonal Beamset to provide automated targeting of individual phased array beams into specific locations along the face of a weld bevel. The powerful new Beam Solver will then optimize the Focal Laws.