Motorized scanner for inspection with magnetostrictive EMAT sensors

A system for non-destructive inspection of a structure, comprising:

• a sensor construction including a biasing magnet, an RF coil, and a section of magnetostrictive strip under the RF coil creating a complete magnetostrictive EMAT sensor body;
• a motorized device that holds the sensor body and permits moving it to different inspection positions across a structure;
• a separate mechanism from the motorized device that can to apply downward pressure on the EMAT sensor body so as to pressure couple the sensor body to the wall of the structure once it has moved into an inspection position, and remove this pressure to allow the sensor body to decouple and travel to other inspection positions on the structure;
• a pulser-receiver instrument configured to generate a time-varying current in the RF coil which can be pulsed when the sensor body is coupled into an inspection position so as to generate EMAT generated ultrasonic waves on the magnetostrictive strip that are subsequently transferred into the structure due to the coupling pressure.