A Method of Dynamic Active Infrared Thermography to Reduce Inspection Time of CFRP Components

Abstract

The accelerated use of carbon fibre reinforced plastics (CFRP) warrants the need for faster and lower-cost inspection techniques to verify the quality of manufactured products. For this purpose, non-destructive testing (NDT) techniques are commonly used and active infrared thermography (IRT) is a highly recommended method. In most applications, active IRT is performed in a static configuration where the elements involved in the inspection do not move. This presents some shortcomings when inspecting larger surfaces or multiple identical components. An alternative approach is a dynamic inspection, which allows for shorter inspection cycle times when inspecting multiple identical components. This work analyses the thermographic results from the static IRT configuration and determines a methodology to achieve a suitable dynamic IRT configuration. The results demonstrate the feasibility of the proposed alternative approach in reducing inspection cycle times when inspecting multiple identical components.