Ultrasonic In-Line Inspection Technique for Contact Materials

The quality of the bond between the contact material and the base metal carrier is becoming increasingly important as the contact size is reduced to conserve silver. Many contact materials are produced by continuous brazing techniques. With conventional methods the quality of the continuous brazed joint cannot be evaluated in sufficient detail by in-line ultrasonic scanning. A new approach is described which allows the in-line inspection of a strip at normal bonding speeds and the printout of void and flaw characteristics of the brazed interface.