High resolution ultrasonic coating thickness gauge
First Claim
1. A thickness gauge for measuring a thickness of a coating on a substrate, comprising:
- ultrasonic transducer means for emitting ultrasonic signals into the coating and receiving the ultrasonic signals reflected from the substrate;
a pulser for sending pulses to the transducer means;
a sampler for sampling signals received by the transducer means;
timing means for controlling the pulser and the sampler so as to perform an equivalent time sampling of the signals sampled by the sampler; and
control means for calculating a thickness of the coating based on said sampled signals.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A gauge for determining a thickness of a coating on a substrate includes a transducer for emitting ultrasonic signals into the coating and for generating electrical signals proportional to the ultrasonic signals received by the transducer, the received signals include first signals reflected from a transducer/coating interface and second signals reflected from a coating/substrate interface; a pulser for sending pulses to the transducer to trigger the emission of the ultrasonic signals; a sampler for sampling the electrical transducer signals and generating sampled data; a timer for controlling the pulser and the sampler so as to perform an equivalent time sampling of the signals received by the sampler; and a controller for calculating a thickness of the coating based on the sampled data, the controller includes the ability to subject the sampled data to a deconvolution analysis so as to distinguish sampled data corresponding to the first signals from sampled data corresponding to the second signals when the coating is thinner than a wavelength of the ultrasonic signal emitted by the transducer.
119 Citations
35 Claims
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1. A thickness gauge for measuring a thickness of a coating on a substrate, comprising:
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ultrasonic transducer means for emitting ultrasonic signals into the coating and receiving the ultrasonic signals reflected from the substrate; a pulser for sending pulses to the transducer means; a sampler for sampling signals received by the transducer means; timing means for controlling the pulser and the sampler so as to perform an equivalent time sampling of the signals sampled by the sampler; and control means for calculating a thickness of the coating based on said sampled signals. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26)
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14. A gauge for determining a thickness of a coating on a substrate, comprising:
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a transducer for emitting and receiving ultrasonic signals into the coating and for generating electrical transducer signals proportional to the ultrasonic signals received by said transducer, said received signals include first signals reflected from a transducer/coating interface and second signals reflected from a coating/substrate interface; a pulser for sending pulses to the transducer to trigger emission of said ultrasonic signals; a sampler for sampling the electrical transducer signals and generating sampled data; timing means for controlling the pulser and the sampler so as to perform an equivalent time sampling of the signals received by the sampler; and control means for calculating a thickness of the coating based on said sampled data, said control means includes means for subjecting said sampled data to a deconvolution analysis so as to distinguish sampled data corresponding to said first signals from sampled data corresponding to said second signals when the coating is thinner than a wavelength of the ultrasonic signals emitted by the transducer. - View Dependent Claims (15, 16, 17, 18, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35)
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Specification