Manual ultrasonic scanner for complex surfaces

A hand held ultrasonic scanning device for manually traversing a surface of a material to be inspected for subsurface flaws, comprising:

• a first body;
• a second hollow body mounted on said first body;
• an ultrasonic transducer mounted at one end of Said second hollow body to generate and project an ultrasound beam axially into said second hollow body;
• an ultrasound reflector in said second hollow body and axially spaced from said transducer, said reflector being positioned at a 45.degree. angle with respect to said transducer to reflect the ultrasound beam therefrom at a 90.degree. angle transversely out of said second hollow body;
• drive means coupled to said reflector for rotating said reflector to cause said ultrasound beam to rotate through an arcuate path in a plane perpendicular to the surface to be inspected;
• an omnidirectional rolling element in said first body for rolling contact with the surface to be inspected;
• and
• a pair of encoders in said first body and operated by said omnidirectional rolling element to provide separate electrical signals representing position coordinates of said second hollow body on the surface.