U.T.?
Just a thought here guys, but over the years in the bridge building business I've had need to check welds in some pretty precarious places, usually in existing structures that had for some reason become suspect.. In many of those places, positioning a "source" for traditional X-ray examination wasn't feasible or sometimes even possible. In those instances, we've utilized ultrasonic testing. Owners are sometimes hesitant, because a permanent record (X-ray film) is not produced by the process. The process ends when the machine is turned off, but a qualified technician then reports to the owner what they've witnessed during the testing, and that usually will suffice when X-ray testing isn't possible.
In the current context, where defect discovery is primarily for piece of mind of a buyer or potential shooter of a composite barreled gun, seems to me that U.T. might just be the ticket. Transducer configurations vary, and none of the standard ones will accommodate a shotgun barrel with any purpose built precision, but even a perpendicular transducer would work for a specific spot that someone had reservations about.
I'm sure Francis could weigh in here with additional thoughts, and more than likely I've wasted everyone's time with these ramblings, but as stated before I've seen U.T. display weld and even base metal faults where more traditional NDT methods were impractical or impossible.
Food for thought,
John
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