Non‐axisymmetric guided waves have been applied to pipe inspection recently. Due to the non‐axisymmetric characteristics of the waves, the circumferential displacement distribution is non‐axisymmetric. It shows a natural focusing phenomenon. With the aid of a circumferential transducer array, we developed an algorithm to focus wave energy at arbitrary locations. The algorithm is based on applying different amplitude and time delay to each of the excitation elements. A series of experiments were carried out to show the focusing effect. © 2003 American Institute of Physics