Patent ID: 7197177
Filing Date: 2007-03-27
Classification: G01N,Y10T

Abstract:
1. A system for determining characteristics of laminate material, including fiber laminate material, metal laminates, brazed parts, welded parts, sandwich parts to determine layer thickness and layer properties such as fiber content, matrix content, density, void content, and other desired properties related to quality control, the system comprising: a holder capable of supporting a sample piece of laminate material so that an edge of the sample piece of laminate material reveals a clearly visible view of the laminated layers of the material, the holder having at least one sample piece support surface of known thickness visible adjacent to the edge of the sample piece of laminate material showing the laminated layers of the material; a visual scanning means capable of viewing the edge of the piece of laminate material and the at least one sample piece support of known thickness and scanning an electronic image of the laminated layers of the material and the sample piece support, the electronic image comprising an array of pixels having different visual characteristics dependent upon the content of each of the layers; a programmable means for automatically receiving and analyzing the electronic image, the programmable means being capable of differentiating between the different visual characteristics thereby determining the layer configuration, capable of counting the number of pixels in a line across each of the different layers and comparing the number of pixels with the number of pixels in the at least one sample piece support of known thickness thereby determining the thickness of each layer, capable of comparing the scanned information with information input about the desired content and thickness of each layer, and further capable of outputting the comparative information in real time.