Olympus NDT
421 N. Quay Street Kennewick, WA 99336 USA Tel 509-736-2751 Fax 509-735-4672 olympusNDT.com [email protected]
Surface Inspection Using the N500
Olympus NDT Reference only material; this procedure is only to be used for familiarization with how to use the N500 in conjunction with surface probes for surface eddy current inspection. It is not to be used in place of authorized written procedures for surface inspection.
Olympus NDT
421 N. Quay Street Kennewick, WA 99336 USA Tel 509-736-2751 Fax 509-735-4672 olympusNDT.com [email protected]
Items required: Nortec N500 Probes: 9222202 or 9222164
(Note: Any bridge pencil probe that operates between 50-500 kHz will be acceptable)
Cable: 9122083 PowerLink™ Cable Test Standard: TB-S1 (1902510) or SRS-0824A
Lemo 16-pin to Lemo 7-pin. Note: Any aluminum standard that has surface notches .008”, .020” and .040”, will be suitable for following this procedure. Note: When using a detachable probe that is not PowerLink™, use Olympus NDT bridge cable 9122244 in place of PowerLink™ cable.
Probe Frequency range; 100-500 kHz
Olympus NDT
421 N. Quay Street Kennewick, WA 99336 USA Tel 509-736-2751 Fax 509-735-4672 olympusNDT.com [email protected]
Summary
This procedure outlines the basic setup for the Olympus NDT N500 for eddy current surface crack inspection on aluminum. Olympus NDT offers a large selection of surface eddy current probes for almost any configuration and inspection requirement. This procedure was written using probe part number 9222202. Any probe that operates between 50 kHz to 500 kHz can be used on this setup procedure. The basic principles of this procedure can be applied to other similar surface inspections using different frequencies and probes. Note: Probe inductances can vary from probe to probe causing Phase/Angle, Lift-Off and Gain to differ when calibrating the N500. Olympus NDT offers probes with or without PowerLink™ technology. This procedure can be followed by operators with or without a PowerLink™ probe.
Olympus NDT
421 N. Quay Street Kennewick, WA 99336 USA Tel 509-736-2751 Fax 509-735-4672 olympusNDT.com [email protected]
Instrument Setup - Getting Started To get started, turn on your instrument by pressing the Power button.
Power Button
Soft Keys Soft Keys
SmartKnob™
Main Function Keys
Olympus NDT
421 N. Quay Street Kennewick, WA 99336 USA Tel 509-736-2751 Fax 509-735-4672 olympusNDT.com [email protected]
Setting up the Instrument: Step 1
1.a. After the instrument has powered on, plug in the PowerLink™ cable, 9122083, and either of the PowerLink™ probes listed in the item required list.
Olympus NDT
421 N. Quay Street Kennewick, WA 99336 USA Tel 509-736-2751 Fax 509-735-4672 olympusNDT.com [email protected]
Step 2
2.a. When connecting a PowerLink™ probe, the Nortec 500 will automatically detect the probe's default settings. This is due to the probe's recognition chip which is programmed to the optimal settings for that probe during manufacturing."
The part number of the probe will be displayed on the screen next to Model. For this procedure, we are using part number 9222202. Operators with non- Powerlink™ can skip steps 2 and 3 and go directly to Step.4.
2.b. Press the Soft Key, LOG/ENTER.
Probe Part Number
Soft Key
Olympus NDT
421 N. Quay Street Kennewick, WA 99336 USA Tel 509-736-2751 Fax 509-735-4672 olympusNDT.com [email protected]
Step 3
3.a. Press the Main function key. This will access the Main menu. 3.b. Press the Soft Key FREQ1 SETUP menu. From here, you will be able to adjust the Frequency, Phase Angle and Gain, which are explained in the following steps.
Main Function Keys
Soft Key
Olympus NDT
421 N. Quay Street Kennewick, WA 99336 USA Tel 509-736-2751 Fax 509-735-4672 olympusNDT.com [email protected]
Step 4 Frequency adjustment
4.a. Adjust Frequency by rotating the SmartKnob™, set frequency to 200 kHz. This will be the instrument and probe operating frequency for this procedure. A frequency of 200 kHz gives the best results on aluminum and is the recommended frequency in most commercial and military eddy current procedures.
If you are using Powerlink™ probe 9222202 the default programmed frequency is 100 kHz. Probe 9222164 default programmed frequency is 300 kHz.
SmartKnob™
Olympus NDT
421 N. Quay Street Kennewick, WA 99336 USA Tel 509-736-2751 Fax 509-735-4672 olympusNDT.com [email protected]
Step 5 Phase adjustment
5.a. Place probe on standard, press Soft Key NULL. Wait until instrument has balanced the probe to the standard. 5.b. After the probe has been balanced on the standard, perform Lift-Off and slide the probe over the notch. This will give you an idea of the probe’s current angle.
Balancing probe on standard Lift-off
Null Point
Soft Key
Olympus NDT
421 N. Quay Street Kennewick, WA 99336 USA Tel 509-736-2751 Fax 509-735-4672 olympusNDT.com [email protected]
Step 6 Phase Angle
6.a Adjust the probe’s angle by pressing Soft Key menu ANGLE and rotating the SmartKnob™ until the flaw signal is 90 degrees to vertical. While rotating the SmartKnob™, lift the probe off the standard repeatedly during this set-up, until the lift-off signal goes from null point, off to the left hand side of the screen.
Lift-off
Null Point
SmartKnob™
Soft Key
Olympus NDT
421 N. Quay Street Kennewick, WA 99336 USA Tel 509-736-2751 Fax 509-735-4672 olympusNDT.com [email protected]
Step 7 Null-Point Adjustment
7.a. Adjusting null-point position, press main function key DISP (display). Next press soft key menu SCREEN SETUP. This will take you to soft key for the horizontal position and a soft key for the vertical position.
7.b. From here, you will be able to adjust null point parameter positioning using soft key for the horizontal position H POS, soft key for the vertical position V POS and the SmartKnob ™.
Note: instrument default null point position is always (H POS 50%) and (V POS 50%).
Soft Key
Soft Key
Soft Key
Main Function Key
SmartKnob™
Olympus NDT
421 N. Quay Street Kennewick, WA 99336 USA Tel 509-736-2751 Fax 509-735-4672 olympusNDT.com [email protected]
7.c. We will now adjust null point position to H POS 70% and V POS 30%. Press soft key H POS and change position, rotating the SmartKnob™ until it is 70%. Repeat the same process as above with V POS. Null point position should now be- horizontal 70% and vertical 30%.
By positioning the null point in this quadrant of the instrument’s screen, we will be able to maximize any flaw signal for better analysis of the inspection data.
SmartKnob™
Soft Key
Soft Key
Olympus NDT
421 N. Quay Street Kennewick, WA 99336 USA Tel 509-736-2751 Fax 509-735-4672 olympusNDT.com [email protected]
Step 9 Gain
9.a. We will now return to the main screen for gain adjustment. Press main function key MAIN, followed by FREQ1 SETUP soft key.
Soft Key
Main Function Key
Olympus NDT
421 N. Quay Street Kennewick, WA 99336 USA Tel 509-736-2751 Fax 509-735-4672 olympusNDT.com [email protected]
9.b. Null probe on the standard and do lift-off and slide probe over .008” notch. Since H Gain (horizontal) and V Gain (vertical) are the same we see little separation from the notch indication versus the lift-off. Note: Most POWERLINK™ probes have their horizontal and vertical gains default the same db percentage value.
Olympus NDT
421 N. Quay Street Kennewick, WA 99336 USA Tel 509-736-2751 Fax 509-735-4672 olympusNDT.com [email protected]
9.c. Adjust instrument gain so that H Gain is 60.0db and V Gain is 70.0 db. Select either soft keys H GAIN or V GAIN then rotate the SmartKnob™ or press the gain soft key until the desired value is reached. The goal is to increase notch indication vertically, for better separation from lift-off on the screen. This should give better signal to noise indication while doing eddy current testing. (As probes may vary in their inductance gain, adjustment may vary as well).
When making these adjustments on the instrument, it is a good idea to null the probe on the standard. Perform a screen erase to clear the screen of any noise and see where your null point placement is on the screen. Note: Gain values may be increased by either rotating the SmartKnob™ or pressing the gain soft key. Each press of the soft key will increment the gain value by 5dB. The gain values may be set together by selecting the GAIN soft key or individually by selecting H GAIN or V GAIN.
Soft Key Soft Key
SmartKnob™
Olympus NDT
421 N. Quay Street Kennewick, WA 99336 USA Tel 509-736-2751 Fax 509-735-4672 olympusNDT.com [email protected]
9.d. Null the probe on the standard again, this should give a good null point and reference on the standard. Slide the probe over all three notches; you should get a similar response on the instrument if gain parameters are adjusted within a 10.0dB vertical to horizontal difference.
Olympus NDT
421 N. Quay Street Kennewick, WA 99336 USA Tel 509-736-2751 Fax 509-735-4672 olympusNDT.com [email protected]
Step 10 Alarm 10.a. We will now setup an alarm box. Press the ALARM main function key. When the alarm setup menu appears, press alarm BOX 1 SETUP. This will take you to alarm box 1 setup parameters.
Main Function Key
Soft Key
Olympus NDT
421 N. Quay Street Kennewick, WA 99336 USA Tel 509-736-2751 Fax 509-735-4672 olympusNDT.com [email protected]
10.b. In the Alarm Box 1 setup menu, first press soft key Off+- and rotate the
SmartKnob™ to display Positive. The alarm box will appear on the screen.
Soft Key
SmartKnob™
Olympus NDT
421 N. Quay Street Kennewick, WA 99336 USA Tel 509-736-2751 Fax 509-735-4672 olympusNDT.com [email protected]
10.c. Set the size and position of the box alarm 1 by pressing each soft key Top, Bottom, Left and Right and rotating the SmartKnob™ at each interval until the box is in the desired location.
Set alarm box position as follows:
o TOP 95-100% o BOTTOM 60% o LEFT 10% o RIGHT 90%
Soft Key
Soft Key
Soft Key
Soft Key
Olympus NDT
421 N. Quay Street Kennewick, WA 99336 USA Tel 509-736-2751 Fax 509-735-4672 olympusNDT.com [email protected]
11.a. Null the probe on the standard again; this should give a good null point. Slide the probe over all three notches; you should get a similar response as below. Make any fine adjusts as required.
As you can see we have three divisions between lift-off and box alarm, this will give a 3-1 signal to noise threshold. Notches .008” and .020” do not trigger the alarm while the .040” notch will trigger the alarm. If the .020” notch is the desired rejection level, the gain may be increased until this flaw indication is in the alarm box.
Olympus NDT
421 N. Quay Street Kennewick, WA 99336 USA Tel 509-736-2751 Fax 509-735-4672 olympusNDT.com [email protected]
Return the instrument to main screen by pressing Main function key, then press FREQ1 soft key. N500 parameters should be set up for eddy current inspection on aluminum.
This should complete the set-up procedure for using the N500 with the surface eddy current probe on aluminum. Olympus NDT has a large number of probes for many metals and alloys. These surface probes are used where surface breaking flaws may occur. Aluminum can come in many different conductivity properties, so instrument adjustments may need to be made.
Main Function Key
Soft Key
Olympus NDT
421 N. Quay Street Kennewick, WA 99336 USA Tel 509-736-2751 Fax 509-735-4672 olympusNDT.com [email protected]
We will now look at a few trouble-shooting tips. When problems arise, many would consider that they have a bad probe or cable, but in some cases, it could be something as simple as the high pass filter is on.
Trouble Shooting If you find you are not getting any signal from the probe’s lift-off, or when sliding the probe over a notch, there are a few instrument menu settings that will affect proper instrument set-up and operation. Two key instrument functions that will affect probe operations are the Filter and Setup menus. See below recommended instrument settings.
Screen display in Filter Menu
Screen display in Setup Menu
After performing all of the above steps, if the eddy current signal is not displaying as expected, an Instrument Default may be performed to bring the N500 back to factory settings. The Default Instrument function can be found in the SETUP menu under SPECIAL SETTINGS.
Filter menu: high-pass filter should be off, low-pass filter 100, Preamp off, and balance off.
Setup menu: probe drive mid or high, and instrument should be in single and not dual frequency mode.
