Nuclear power supplies ~20% of the US baseload electricity. ~12% to 14% of that power relies on Cast Austenitic Stainless Steel (CASS) components. For over 50 years various interested parties have tried to develop a means to examine CASS, and so far, have failed. Its nature is that of an extremely attenuative, coarse grained material, and mostly unsolvable with any ultrasonics that have been applied to it.
Additive Manufacturing (AM), specifically wire deposition techniques, share many characteristics of CASS from the Ultrasonic perspective. The advantages of building components with AM is clear, gaining in popularity, and looking to supplant more traditional manufacturing. To achieve quality examinations of these components, we will need to look to our past lessons learned from CASS or be willing to repeat them.
This paper will introduce the audience to a different convention for taking on some of the most demanding attenuative materials not only for CASS and AM components but also Inconel welds, dissimilar metal welds, and aerospace composites.
It’s a look into what is possible when merging older brute force methods with newer technology, and the results that follow.