Material condition assessment with eddy current sensors
First Claim
1. A method for assessing cold work process quality of a test material comprising:
- a) placing an eddy current sensor proximate to a surface of the test material prior to cold working;
b) measuring a sensor response at a plurality of registered positions along the surface;
c) combining the sensor response with position information to form a spatial response in at least one dimension;
d) cold working the material;
e) after cold working, obtaining responses by repeating steps b) and c); and
f) assessing cold work quality by comparing the responses obtained before and after cold working at the registered positions.
1 Assignment
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Accused Products
Abstract
Eddy current sensors and sensor arrays are used for process quality and material condition assessment of conducting materials. In an embodiment, changes in spatially registered high resolution images taken before and after cold work processing reflect the quality of the process, such as intensity and coverage. These images also permit the suppression or removal of local outlier variations. Anisotropy in a material property, such as magnetic permeability or electrical conductivity, can be intentionally introduced and used to assess material condition resulting from an operation, such as a cold work or heat treatment. The anisotropy is determined by sensors that provide directional property measurements. The sensor directionality arises from constructs that use a linear conducting drive segment to impose the magnetic field in a test material. Maintaining the orientation of this drive segment, and associated sense elements, relative to a material edge provides enhanced sensitivity for crack detection at edges.
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Citations
18 Claims
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1. A method for assessing cold work process quality of a test material comprising:
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a) placing an eddy current sensor proximate to a surface of the test material prior to cold working; b) measuring a sensor response at a plurality of registered positions along the surface; c) combining the sensor response with position information to form a spatial response in at least one dimension; d) cold working the material; e) after cold working, obtaining responses by repeating steps b) and c); and f) assessing cold work quality by comparing the responses obtained before and after cold working at the registered positions. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18)
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Specification