Ultraviolet excitation for thermography inspection of surface cracks in welded joints

Infrared thermography is a non-contact and full field inspection method which has proven to be suitable for automatic surface crack detection. For automatic analysis of the inspection results, a high signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) is required. In this paper an alternative excitation method, using ultraviolet (UV) illumination, is presented and evaluated. Artificial surface defects, so-called notches, in a titanium plate are detected both in the weld seam and in the heat affected zone. Notches with a size from 80 μm in width and 250 μm in length are detected. The SNR using UV illumination is compared with that using flash lamp excitation. The results show that UV illumination using a mercury lamp is a good alternative as excitation source for thermography when detecting surface cracks. To validate the excitation method, results from real surface cracks are included.