Patent ID: 6954545
Filing Date: 2005-10-11
Classification: G01N,G06T

Abstract:
1. A method for testing a petroleum product produced during refining to classify said product, said method comprising the steps of: a) obtaining and preparing a representative sample of said product; b) forming a digital image of said sample with a scanner; and c) processing said digital image by extracting and filtering said digital image to produce a representative lustre measurement of said sample wherein said b) and c) are iterated a plurality of times and including the additional step of totaling said representative lustre measurement of said sample produced during each of said iterations and then averaging said total to obtain an average lustre measurement of said sample; and d) further including the step of comparing said average lustre measurement to established parameters to assign a coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE) value to said sample to determine the CTE of said product, given historical correlation between CTE and lustre measurements.