Acoustic diagnostic system and associated method
First Claim
1. An acoustic diagnostic system, comprising:
- a sensor mechanism to convert mechanical vibrations of a test object into electrical signals;
a signal conditioning unit to amplify and low-pass filter the electrical signals;
an analog/digital converter to convert the amplified and low-pass filtered signals into discrete digital data;
a signal processing unit to perform a signal analysis, an extraction of characteristics of the electrical signals, and a classification of the characteristics into an error class of mechanical defects in the physical structure of the test object and a quality class indicative of an overall quality of the test object;
an archive to automatically archive an occurrence of the error class and the quality class, and to automatically archive a frequency of occurrences of the error class and the quality class; and
a component to detect redundant ones of the characteristics by determining correlations between the characteristics.
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Abstract
The invention relates to an acoustic diagnostic system and an associated method, wherein the system includes a sensor mechanism to convert mechanical vibrations into electrical signals. The acoustic diagnostic system furthermore includes a signal conditioning unit to amplify and low-pass filter the electrical signals and an analog/digital converter to convert the amplified and low-pass filtered signals into discrete digital data. In addition, a signal processing unit, which performs signal analysis, extraction of characteristics, and classification of error classes and/or quality classes, which are associated with a respective test object of the digital data, is provided. Finally, the acoustic diagnostic system includes an archive to automatically archive an occurrence and a frequency of the error classes and/or the quality classes. The diagnostic system preferably includes controlling means that control the production process for the manufacture of the test object.
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Citations
22 Claims
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1. An acoustic diagnostic system, comprising:
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a sensor mechanism to convert mechanical vibrations of a test object into electrical signals;
a signal conditioning unit to amplify and low-pass filter the electrical signals;
an analog/digital converter to convert the amplified and low-pass filtered signals into discrete digital data;
a signal processing unit to perform a signal analysis, an extraction of characteristics of the electrical signals, and a classification of the characteristics into an error class of mechanical defects in the physical structure of the test object and a quality class indicative of an overall quality of the test object;
an archive to automatically archive an occurrence of the error class and the quality class, and to automatically archive a frequency of occurrences of the error class and the quality class; and
a component to detect redundant ones of the characteristics by determining correlations between the characteristics. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10)
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11. A system, comprising:
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an acoustic diagnostic component, comprising;
a sensor mechanism to convert mechanical vibrations of the test object into electrical signals;
a signal conditioning unit to amplify and low-pass filter the electrical signals;
an analog/digital converter to convert the amplified and low-pass filtered signals into discrete digital data;
a signal processing unit to perform a signal analysis, an extraction of characteristics of the electrical signals, and a classification of the characteristics into an error class of mechanical defects in the physical structure of the test object and a quality class indicative of an overall quality of the test object; and
an archive to automatically archive an occurrence of the error class and the quality class, and to automatically archive a frequency of occurrences of the error class and the quality class;
a planning tool comprising a component that detects redundant ones of the characteristics by determining correlations between the characteristics; and
a controller to control a production process utilizing the test object.
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12. A method for a quality control of a test object, comprising:
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(a) converting mechanical vibrations into electrical signals;
(b) amplifying and low-pass filtering the electrical signals;
(c) converting the amplified and low-pass filtered signals into discrete digital data;
(d) analyzing the digital data;
(e) extracting characteristics of the electrical signals based on the digital data;
(f) classifying the characteristics into an error class of mechanical defects in the physical structure of the test object and a quality class indicative of an overall quality of the test object;
(g) automatically archiving an occurrence of the error class and the quality class;
(h) automatically archiving a frequency of occurrences of the error class and the quality class; and
(i) identifying redundant ones of the characteristics by determining correlations between the characteristics. - View Dependent Claims (13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19)
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20. An apparatus, comprising:
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a sensor mechanism converting mechanical vibrations of test objects into electrical signals;
a signal conditioning unit conditioning the electrical signals into conditioned digital data;
a signal processing unit extracting characteristics from the digital data, and classifying the extracted characteristics into error classes of mechanical defects in the physical structure of the test objects and quality classes indicative of respective overall quality of the test objects; and
a planning tool utilized to detect ones of the characteristics that are redundant. - View Dependent Claims (21)
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22. A method, comprising:
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converting mechanical vibrations of test objects into electrical signals;
conditioning the electrical signals into conditioned digital data;
extracting characteristics from the digital data;
classifying the characteristics into error classes of defects in the test objects and quality classes indicative of quality of the test objects; and
utilizing correlations among the characteristics to filter redundant ones of the characteristics.
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Specification