George J Schuster, 721519 Van Buren St, Kennewick, WA 99338

6877376, Apr 12, 2005

Jan 8, 2003

10/339358

George J. Schuster - Kennewick WA, US
Susan L. Crawford - Richland WA, US
Steven R. Doctor - Richland WA, US
Robert V. Harris - Pasco WA, US

Battelle Memorial Institute - Richland WA

G01N029/06

73602, 73620

One form of the present invention is a technique for interrogating a sample with ultrasound which includes: generating ultrasonic energy data corresponding to a volume of a sample and performing a synthetic aperture focusing technique on the ultrasonic energy data. The synthetic aperture focusing technique includes: defining a number of hyperbolic surfaces which extend through the volume at different depths and a corresponding number of multiple element accumulation vectors, performing a focused element calculation procedure for a group of vectors which are representative of the interior of a designated aperture, performing another focused element calculation procedure for vectors corresponding to the boundary of the aperture, and providing an image corresponding to features of the sample in accordance with the synthetic aperture focusing technique.

5646351, Jul 8, 1997

Sep 18, 1995

8/529847

Morris S. Good - Richland WA
George J. Schuster - Kennewick WA
James R. Skorpik - Kennewick WA

Battelle Memorial Institute - Richland WA

G01N 2926

73622

The invention is an ultrasonic surface hardness depth measurement apparatus and method permitting rapid determination of hardness depth of shafts, rods, tubes and other cylindrical parts. The apparatus of the invention has a part handler, sensor, ultrasonic electronics component, computer, computer instruction sets, and may include a display screen. The part handler has a vessel filled with a couplant, and a part rotator for rotating a cylindrical metal part with respect to the sensor. The part handler further has a surface follower upon which the sensor is mounted, thereby maintaining a constant distance between the sensor and the exterior surface of the cylindrical metal part. The sensor is mounted so that a front surface of the sensor is within the vessel with couplant between the front surface of the sensor and the part.