M. Moles, R/D Tech, Toronto, ON, Canada; A. Lamarre, O. Dupuis, R/D Tech, Québec, QC, Canada

Summary: Friction stir welds (FSW) are a new method of joining metals using a solid state bonding process. FSW offer significant technical advantages, but produce unique defects. Phased array ultrasonics can reliably detect all internal volumetric defects in FSW, such as wormholes and porosity. Spot-focused beams improve detection, and inspection angles can be optimized. Phased arrays in pulse-echo mode offer some tight kissing bond (or entrapped oxide defects) detection. Furthermore, a technique using ultrasonic attenuation measurements shows the presence or absence of conditions for forming kissing bonds. Also, eddy current arrays can be used for surface inspection, and can detect tight kissing bonds. Using all three approaches, the overall detection capability of kissing bonds is high.