Detection of kiss bonds within composite components

A system for detecting a kiss bond in a composite component, the system comprising:

• an ultrasonic transmitter configured to emit ultrasound energy into the composite component;
• an ultrasonic receiver configured to receive reflected ultrasound energy from the composite component following an interaction between the composite component and the emitted ultrasound energy;
• at least one data processor;
• and
• non-transitory machine-readable memory operatively coupled to the at least one data processor, the machine-readable memory storing computer-readable instructions executable by the at least one data processor for:
• using reflected ultrasound data representative of the reflected ultrasound energy from the composite component received at the ultrasonic receiver, a first threshold amplitude value between 2% and 5% higher than a predetermined baseline noise amplitude value of expected material noise in the reflected ultrasound energy from the composite component, and a second threshold amplitude value higher than the first threshold amplitude value,
• identifying one or more occurrences of an amplitude of the reflected ultrasound energy exceeding the threshold amplitude value and less than the second threshold amplitude value;
• and
• detecting the kiss bond in the composite component based on the identified one or more occurrences of the amplitude of the reflected ultrasound energy.