Patent ID: 8597010

Claim:
A resin-transfer molding system for determining when an uncured composite part is ready to be cured comprising: a heating device programmed to heat an uncured composite part, at least partly covered with resin, before beginning a cure process, to provide a temperature differential between areas of the uncured composite part that have been covered with the resin, and areas of the uncured composite part that have not been covered with the resin; an infrared camera programmed to take an infrared image of the uncured composite part prior to being heated by the heating device, and to take infrared images of the uncured composite part, heated by the heating device, prior to beginning the cure process; and a computer comprising an image processing component programmed to analyze the infrared images taken by the infrared camera, to determine temperatures of the uncured composite part and comprising programming instructions, stored by the computer, which are executable by the computer to analyze a distribution of pixel intensities of the infrared images of the uncured composite part, taken by the infrared camera, to determine whether the images contain pixels indicating that the uncured composite part is covered by the resin, prior to beginning the cure process; the programming instructions are executable by the computer, using the image processing component, to determine a baseline image of the infrared images using the infrared image taken before heating by the heating device, and a correction image of the infrared images based on the baseline image, and to remove image defects from the infrared images by subtracting the correction image from the infrared images.