Friction stir weld (FSW) inspections in aerospace manufacturing are challenging for ultrasound technicians not necessarily because they require specialized computations or complex techniques but because scanning with conventional probe setups can be so time consuming.

Portable phased array ultrasonic testing systems hit the market nearly 20 years ago, and today the latest generation of these tools delivers better amplitude resolution, faster data acquisition rates, and advanced data analysis in a single easy-to-handle package.