Heatable glazing inspection
First Claim
1. A method of inspecting a heatable glazing, the heatable glazing comprising two plies and a heater array including a heater wire disposed between the two plies, the method comprising the steps(i) illuminating the heatable glazing with a light source to produce a shadowgraph image of the heatable glazing;
- (ii) passing a sufficiently high electrical current through the heater array such that the heater wire gets hot and the refractive index of medium of the glazing surrounding the heater wire changes allowing the heater wire to be observable in the shadowgraph image of the heatable glazing, such a shadowgraph image of the heatable glazing being referred to as an active shadowgraph image of the heatable glazing; and
(iii) capturing the active shadowgraph image of the heatable glazing with an imaging sensor.
1 Assignment
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Accused Products
Abstract
A method of inspecting a heatable glazing is disclosed. A heatable glazing comprises a heater array having at least one heater wire. The method comprises the steps of (i) illuminating the heatable glazing with a light source to produce a shadowgraph image of the heatable glazing; (ii) passing a sufficiently high electrical current through the heater array such that the heater wire is observable in the shadowgraph image of the heatable glazing, such a shadowgraph image of the heatable glazing being referred to as an active shadowgraph image of the heatable glazing; and (iii) capturing the active shadowgraph image of the heatable glazing with an imaging sensor. Apparatus for carrying out the method is also disclosed.
18 Citations
14 Claims
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1. A method of inspecting a heatable glazing, the heatable glazing comprising two plies and a heater array including a heater wire disposed between the two plies, the method comprising the steps
(i) illuminating the heatable glazing with a light source to produce a shadowgraph image of the heatable glazing; -
(ii) passing a sufficiently high electrical current through the heater array such that the heater wire gets hot and the refractive index of medium of the glazing surrounding the heater wire changes allowing the heater wire to be observable in the shadowgraph image of the heatable glazing, such a shadowgraph image of the heatable glazing being referred to as an active shadowgraph image of the heatable glazing; and (iii) capturing the active shadowgraph image of the heatable glazing with an imaging sensor. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 14)
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13. An apparatus for inspecting a heater wire laminated within a heatable glazing, the apparatus comprising a light source for illuminating the heatable glazing to produce a shadowgraph image of the glazing, an imaging sensor to acquire the shadowgraph image and a power supply for applying sufficient electrical current to the heater wire such that the heater wire gets hot and the refractive index of medium of the glazing surrounding the heater wire changes allowing the heater wire to be observable in the shadowgraph image of the glazing.
Specification