Toyota Motor Engineering & Manufacturing North America, Inc.

Nippon Steel Sumitomo Metal Corporation

University of Kentucky Research Foundation

Ahmad Salaimeh

Kozo Saito

Belal Gharaibeh

Keng Hoo Chuah

Junichi Nakagawa

Tadayuki Ito

Masahiro Yamamoto

Tetsuo Nishiyama

Masahiro Doki

Richard P Alloo

Huaxiong Huang

Tomoya Takeuchi

Kazufumi Ito

Sean C Bohun

Nelson Akafuah

A defect on the surface or in the surface layer of a moving material can be detected by using a method comprising steps of: heating the surface of the material, obtaining thermal image data of the surface of the material using an infrared thermography camera while the surface of the material is being heated up at the heating step or being cooled down after heating, and detecting the defect by calculating Laplacian with respect to temperature of the surface represented by the thermal image data. When the thermal image data is obtained while the material is being heated up, a heating device and the camera is arranged so that thermal energy emitted from the heating device is reflected by the material to come into the camera.

Method for detecting defect in material and system for the method

A method of analyzing a thermal image of a coated substrate to determine the presence of defects includes determining a defect temperature range based on a color of the coated substrate and the maximum temperature of the coated substrate in the thermal image. Thereafter, the thermal image is processed by determining a signal value of a pixel of interest based on a temperature of the pixel of interest, temperatures of pixels in a kernel of pixels surrounding the pixel of interest, and the color of the coated substrate. The signal value of the pixel of interest is then compared to the lower temperature threshold of the defect temperature range, wherein the pixel of interest is a defect location when the signal value of the pixel of interest is greater than or equal to the lower temperature threshold.

Systems and methods for detecting defects in coatings utilizing color-based thermal mismatch

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Lexington, KY, United States of America

Ahmad Salaimeh