OPTICAL APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR EXAMINING AN OBJECT

Abstract: Apparatus for detecting discontinuites in a radiation diffusing surface (10) such as paper comprising means for passing radiation to the surface and radiation collection means (19) for receiving the diffuse radiation (18) from a limited area of the surface (10), the radiation collection means includes means 26 to receive the diffuse radiation from a limited area only and from within predetermined angular limits other than normal to the surface, the radiation collection means (19) including means (26,32) for defining said predetermined angular limits by means of total internal reflection.

Description: The present invention relates to an optical apparatus and method for examining an object. Many methods for examining objects optically have been proposed and they frequently comprise means for scanning radiation across the object under examination and collecting the radiation influenced by the object to determine features including faults or flaws in the object. A particular problem which arises in examining some objects having a generally flat surface (such as sheet material) is to detect, by optical inspection apparatus, discontinuities in the surface such as creases or abrupt changes in surface level. Two examples may be given but there are many others. In the manufacture of sheet material creases can occur in the material which provide an abrupt change of the surface of the material. Secondly, in the production of newspapers, before printing, a mock-up of the newspaper is produced which comprises a sheet of paper the size of the finished product and glued to this paper are a number of other pieces of paper carrying some of the various articles which are to appear on the page. The reason they are produced separately is that they can be moved around to change the layout during the planning of that page of the newspaper. A problem arises in printing the newspaper from this mock-up in that where the separate pieces of paper appear stuck on to the large sheet of paper there are provided discontinuities in the form of edges. This problem is particularly acute in a case where the image of that page is to be transmitted to a remote location in the form of a linear digital (or analogue) signal which is produced by scanning across the page and detecting, during the scan, the light signal reflected or otherwise influenced by the surface of the paper. Clearly one wishes to pass signals which correspond to the blank paper and to the print since that will reproduce the image but it is possible with this system that the shadows caused by edges between the sheets of paper which have been stuck on to the large sheet of paper will also be reproduced and this is clearly undesirable. Such edges which are caused by abrupt changes of surface level also occur in other situations where an object is to be examined and in some circumstances it is desirable to be able to obtain some indication of the extent of change of the surface level. For example, a certain degree of tolerance of change of surface level may be permissable when dealing with, for example, pits or craters in a surface. An earlier arrangement is described in our British Patent Specification 2117897. In this, radiation is reflected from a radiation diffusing surface is collected from a predetermined direction other than normal to the surface by a variety of means which one can summarise as being a "Venetian blind" type. The present invention provides according to one aspect apparatus for receiving radiation only within predetermined angular limits, the apparatus including means to which the radiation is passed and in which the radiation is internally reflected, characterised in that the opposite predetermined angular limits of the receipt of radiation are defined by total internal reflection within the apparatus, said apparatus including a first transparent body arranged to receive radiation, and including a surface which reflects by total internal reflection or refracts radiation incident thereon, refracted radiation being collected by the apparatus and reflected radiation being absorbed, whereby said surface defines one of said predetermined angular limits, and a second transparent body being mounted adjacent to said surface whereby radiation refracted by said surface passes into said second transparent body, the radiation passing into said second transparent body being passed to a surface of said body, said radiation incident on said surface being refracted therethrough or internally reflected therein, said refracted radiation being lost to the system and said totally internally reflected radiation being collected by the apparatus. The present invention also provides apparatus for detecting discontinuities in a radiation diffusing surface comprising; means for passing radiation to the surface under examination; radiation collection means arranged to receive diffuse radiation from a limited area of the surface, said radiation collection means including means to receive diffuse radiation from said limited area only from within predetermined angular limits other than normal to said surface; means for moving said limited area across said surface; characterised in that the radiation collection means includes means for defining said predetermined angular limits by means of total internal reflection, said radiation collection means including; a first transparent body to receive radiation, and including a surface which reflects by total internal reflection or refracts radiation incident thereon, refracted radiation being collected by the radiation collection means and reflected radiation being absorbed, whereby said surface defines one of said predetermined angular limits; and a second transparent body mounted adjacent to said surface whereby radiation refracted by said surface passes into said second transparent body, the radiation passing into said second transparent body being passed to a surface of said body, said radiation incident on said surface being refracted therethrough or internally reflected therein, said refracted radiation being lost to the system and said totally internally reflected radiation being collected by the apparatus. Throughout the specification we shall refer to "light" and "optical". The normal arrangement used visible light, but it is possible to operate the invention with radiation of other wavelengths such as infrared or ultra violet and the words light and optical should be interpreted accordingly. Preferred embodiments of the invention will now be described by way of example only and with reference to the accompanying drawings in which: Figure 1 is a front view of a light collection apparatus according to a first aspect of the invention, Figure 2 is a side view of the apparatus of Figure 1, Figure 3 is a enlarged section of part of a surface to be examined showing the method of operation of the invention. Referring to Figure 1 the object to be examined comprises a diffuse surface which may be, by way of example only, a sheet of material 10 the width of which is illustrated in Figure 1 between points 11 and 12 and which moves in a direction shown by the arrow 13 in Figure 2. The sheet of material may comprise paper, textile or the like. The sheet 10 is scanned by a focussed beam of light 14 which is scanned from edge 11 to edge 12 in the direction of the arrow 16. The beam of light may be provided by a laser beam 17. The incident beam 17 is reflected by the sheet 10 in a generally diffuse nature as is described with respect to Figures 1 and 2 of our earlier patent 2117897. Figure 3 shows the surface of the sheet 10 which has an edge or discontinuity 10C caused by a change from a first surface portion 10A to a second surface portion 10B. The discontinuity 10C may be in the form of a crease or other discontinuity. As is described in our earlier patent 2117897 a beam of radiation in the form of the incident laser beam 17, strikes the surface of the sheet 10 and scatters radiation as is indicated by the short arrows 18. There is provided means 19 for receiving the scattered radiation from the surface within a wedge of angles indicated by A in Figure 3 between angular limits B and C with respect to surface of the sheet 10. Whilst the laser beam 17 is to the left of the position illustrated as X in figure 3 then scatttered radiation indicated by the small arrows 18 can be received by the light receiving means 19. However, whilst the laser beam 17 between the positions X and Y illustrated typically by position Z the light receiving means 19 cannot receive scattered radiation from the surface of the sheet 10 because of the edge 10C between the surfaces 10A and 10B. As a consequence, if the laser is between X & Y no light is received by light receiving means 19 and therefore there is no output from light receiving means 19. As is explained in our earlier patent 2117897 if there is provided a second light receiving means 21 which similarly receives radiation only between anglular limits D and E then a comparison of the light received by means 19 and 21 will indicate whether the scattered light has been reflected from a normal part of the surface of sheet 10 (in which case comparative values of the light received by means 19 and 21 will be the same, although the absolute values of light received may vary if, for example, the sheet carries printed material) or there is a crease or discontinuity as shown in Figure 3 in which case the light received by 19 and 21 will be different. In this case the light received by 21 if the laser beam 17 is between X and Y will be greater than that received by means 19. The use of a comparison between the light received by light receiving means 19 and 21 has been utilised in our earlier 2117897 to eliminate the shadows cast by smaller sheets pasted onto a larger sheet in a mock-up of a page of a newspaper. A further use of comparison of the light received by the light receiving means 19 and 21 is in providing an indication of the height difference between the surface portion 10A and 10B. It will be understood that the linear distance between laser beam position X and Y is dependent upon the height difference (H) between surface parts 10A and 10B. As the height difference increases, so the difference between X and Y increases. Such an arrangement is useful in examining an object where discontinuities such as the step shown in Figure 3 are likely to be present on the surface of the object being examined and in which a small step, that is a samll height H between the surface parts 10A and 10B can be tolerated but a larger step cannot be tolerated. Apparatus of this type, therefore, provides a means for discriminating between acceptable and unacceptable surface irregularities. The light receiving means 19 will now be described with reference to Figures 1 and 2. The light receiving means 19 comprises a first perspex prism 26 the base 27 of which extends parallel to and above the sheet 10 and extends beyond the edges 11 and 12. A side face 28 of the prism 26 has a matt black surface to absorb light incident on the face 28 from within the prism. The upper face 29 of the prism 26 extends as shown in Figure 1. The upper face 29 of the prism 26 spaced from a coplanar lower face 31 of a second perspex prism 32 by an air gap 25, the second prism 32 having a second upper face 33 which extends from an apex adjacent the apex between the base 27 and upper face 29 of the first prism 26. A third, end face 34 of the second prism is mounted adjacent a photomultiplier 36. A plane mirror 37 is mounted adjacent to and parallel to the upper face 33 there being provided a small air gap 40 between the upper face 33 and the mirror 37. Figure 1 shows the limiting rays receivable by the light collection means 19 which correspond to angles B and C in Figure 3. Considering the left hand limiting ray, FGHJ, the ray from the diffusing surface is refracted at G on the base surface 27 of the first prism 26, and is totally internally reflected at H on the upper face 29 to be reflected back along line HJ to J on the side face 28 where it is absorbed by the matt black surface. The other limiting ray FKLMNPQR is refracted at K on the base face 27 of the first prism 26, refracted at L on the upper face 29 and passes across the air gap 25 into the second prism 32 at M, is refracted through the upper face 33 of the second prism 32 at N, is reflected at P by the plane miror 37, re-enters the second prism at Q, and is refracted at R on the lower face 31 of the second prism. It passes into the air gap 25 at a grazing angle at so will not re-enter the prism 26 and is lost to the system. Rays between these two limiting rays enter the base face 27, are refracted through the upper face 29 of the first prism 26, cross the air gap 25 and enter the lower face 31 of the second prism 32, and are successively totally internally reflected at the upper face 33 and lower face 31 of the second prism so as to pass up through the second prism 32 to the end face 34 where they enter the photomultiplier 36. The invention is not restricted to the details of the foregoing example. If the two prisms are of materials of different refractive indices then the air gap 25 may be eliminated. As will be understood the two light receiving means 19 and 21 of Figure 3 may be similar. In an alternative arrangement, for a different purposes, the photomultiplier 36 may be replaced by a light source which may be a non-coherent light source which will thereby produce light which strikes the surface 11 within the angles defined, in Figure 1 by the rays FG and FK. The complete length of the surface 11 will be illuminated but with light from this particular angular direction.

Claims: Apparatus for receiving radiation only within predetermined angular limits, the apparatus including means (26) to which the radiation is passed and in which the radiation is internally reflected, characterised in that the opposite predetermined angular limits of the receipt of radiation are defined by total internal reflection within the apparatus, said apparatus including a first transparent body (26) arranged to receive radiation, and including a surface (29) which reflects by total internal reflection or refracts radiation incident thereon, refracted radiation being collected by the apparatus and reflected radiation being absorbed, whereby said surface (29) defines one of said predetermined angular limits, and a second transparent body (32) being mounted adjacent to said surface (29) whereby radiation refracted by said surface (29) passes into said second transparent body (32), the radiation passing into said second transparent body being passed to a surface (31) of said body (32), said radiation incident on said surface (31) being refracted therethrough or internally reflected therein, said refracted radiation being lost to the system and said totally internally reflected radiation being collected by the apparatus. Apparatus for detecting discontinuities in a radiation diffusing surface (10) comprising; means for passing radiation to the surface under examination; radiation collection means (19) arranged to receive diffuse radiation (18) from a limited area of the surface (10), said radiation collection means (19) including means (26) to receive diffuse radiation from said limited area only from within predetermined angular limits other than normal to said surface; means for moving said limited area across said surface; characterised in that the radiation collection means (19) includes means (26,32) for defining said predetermined angular limits by means of total internal reflection, said radiation collection means (19) including; a first transparent body (26) to receive radiation, and including a surface (29) which reflects by total internal reflection or refracts radiation incident thereon, refracted radiation being collected by the radiation collection means (19) and reflected radiation being absorbed, whereby said surface (29) defines one of said predetermined angular limits; and a second transparent body (32) mounted adjacent to said surface (29) whereby radiation refracted by said surface (29) passes into said second transparent body (32), the radiation passing into said second transparent body being passed to a surface (31) of said body (32), said radiation incident on said surface (31) being refracted therethrough or internally reflected therein, said refracted radiaton being lost to the system and said totally internally reflected radiation being collected by the apparatus. Apparatus as claimed in claim 1 or 2 characterised in that said first and second transparent bodies comprise prisms (26,32). Apparatus as claimed in any of claims 1 to 3 characterised in that radiation refracted into said second transparent body (32) is refracted out of said body (32) through a second surface (33), is reflected by a mirror (37), and re-enters the second transparent body (32), before passing to said surface (31). Apparatus as claimed in claim 4 characterised in that an air gap (25) is provided between said two transparent bodies (26,32), said surfaces (29,31) are planar and are arranged parallel to and adjacent to one another with said air gap (25) there between, whereby radiation refracted through said surface (31) is reflected out of said apparatus through said air gap (25) by means of external reflection at the surfaces (29,31). Apparatus as claimed in any of the preceding claims characterised by radiation detector means (36) arranged to collect said radiation between said predetermined angular limits.

Inventors: WEST, ROBERT NOEL
Applicants: SIRA LIMITED
Application year: 1987
Main classification: G01J1
IPC codes: G01J1, G01N21