Laser surface characteristic measuring
First Claim
1. A high speed method of accepting and rejecting an object by identifying specific three-dimensional surface features of interest of an object, including:
- providing at least two sensors configured to make measurements of opposite surfaces of a common wall;
creating relative motion between said sensor and the object while repetitively making measurements of surface characteristics in order to create a data set wherein said data set includes a plurality of measurements made at each position on the object and positional data;
extracting from said data set a subset of data that represents surface features of interest of the object by mathematically manipulating said data set to identify three-dimensional surface features of interest of the object on each of said opposite surfaces;
providing a set of relevant surface feature data and a limit of deviation from the surface feature data which represents an acceptable object;
correlating said subset of data that represents surface features of interest of the object with said set of relevant surface feature data in order to determine an amount of deviation of the measured features of interest from the relevant surface feature data; and
accepting or rejecting said object in response to said correlating the specified tolerance by determining whether the amount of deviation is within the provided limit.
3 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A high speed method and apparatus for accepting and rejecting an object by identifying specific surface features of interest of an object includes providing at least one non-contact sensor capable of measuring a characteristic of a surface and a transporter system for creating relative motion between the sensor and an object while repetitively making measurements of a surface of the object with multiple readings being taken with the sensor at each of multiple locations in order to create a data set. A data analysis system mathematically processes the surface characteristic data and positional data into surface feature data which represents three-dimensional surface features of the object. The data analysis system correlates the surface feature data with data representative of ideal surface features of an object in order to determine an amount of deviation of the measured surface feature data from data representative of ideal surface features to accept or reject the object by determining whether the amount of deviation is within a provided limit.
14 Citations
21 Claims
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1. A high speed method of accepting and rejecting an object by identifying specific three-dimensional surface features of interest of an object, including:
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providing at least two sensors configured to make measurements of opposite surfaces of a common wall; creating relative motion between said sensor and the object while repetitively making measurements of surface characteristics in order to create a data set wherein said data set includes a plurality of measurements made at each position on the object and positional data; extracting from said data set a subset of data that represents surface features of interest of the object by mathematically manipulating said data set to identify three-dimensional surface features of interest of the object on each of said opposite surfaces; providing a set of relevant surface feature data and a limit of deviation from the surface feature data which represents an acceptable object; correlating said subset of data that represents surface features of interest of the object with said set of relevant surface feature data in order to determine an amount of deviation of the measured features of interest from the relevant surface feature data; and accepting or rejecting said object in response to said correlating the specified tolerance by determining whether the amount of deviation is within the provided limit. - View Dependent Claims (3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21)
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2. A high speed non-contact inspection apparatus, comprising:
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at least two sensors configured to measure characteristics of opposite surfaces of a common wall; a transporter system for causing relative motion between said at least two sensors and an object; a high speed data acquisition system for making multiple readings from said at least two sensors at each of multiple locations on an object in order to provide surface characteristic data; and a data analysis system which receives said surface characteristics data from said data acquisition system and positional data from said transporter and mathematically processes said surface characteristic data and said positional data into three-dimensional surface feature data which represents surface features of the object; and wherein said data analysis system correlates said surface feature data with data representative of ideal surface features of an object in order to determine an amount of deviation of the measured surface feature data from the data representative of ideal surface features and accepts or rejects the object by determining whether the amount of deviation is within a provided limit. - View Dependent Claims (9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16)
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Specification