Patent ID: 8454234

Claim:
Thickness measurer for metal elements, comprising: a casing surrounding a body of a source device able to emit a bundle of ionizing radiations at a predetermined or predeterminable intensity; a receiver device, disposed on an opposite side with respect to said metal element, able to detect a residual intensity of said bundle of ionizing radiations; and a cooling device, able to cool the source device, the cooling device comprising a heat pump element controlled by an electric quantity and having a surface in direct contact with a surface of said casing, said heat pump element being configured to remove heat from the source device so as to keep said source device at a predetermined and controlled temperature, wherein the measurer further comprises detection means able to detect, directly or indirectly, the intensity, or the variation in intensity, of the bundle of ionizing radiations emitted by the source device, and associated with said heat pump element, and wherein the measurer comprises a processing and control unit connected to said detection means and to said heat pump element in order to regulate said electric quantity supplied to said heat pump element according to a detection of said detection means for controlling a quantity of heat removed by said cooling device in order to keep an emission of the bundle of ionizing radiations stable.