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THERMAL IMAGING METHOD AND APPRATUS FOR EVALUATING COATINGS

  • US 20120050537A1
  • Filed: 08/27/2010
  • Published: 03/01/2012
  • Est. Priority Date: 08/27/2010
  • Status: Active Grant
First Claim
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1. An apparatus for determining variable thickness of a coating disposed on a substrate, the apparatus comprising:

  • a flash-lamp source capable of generating a thermal pulse at the coating surface;

    an optical trigger coupled to the flash-lamp source and capable of initiating the flash-lamp firing;

    a transistor coupled to the flash lamp source and capable of quenching the thermal pulsea reflective filter positioned between the flash-lamp source and the coating surface capable of preventing residual heat from the flash-lamp from heating the coating surface;

    an IR image capture device positioned to capture sequential image frames of the coating surface, whereas each sequential image frame corresponds to an elapsed time and comprises a pixel array, and wherein each pixel of the array corresponds to a location on the coating surface;

    a processor coupled to the IR image capture device capable of;

    controlling the operation of the optical trigger and transistor;

    receiving the image frames of the coating surface at the initiation of the flash-lamp firing and sequentially there after; and

    determining the thickness of the coating at various points along the substrate using in part the sequential image frames to calculate a time-temperature response.

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