United Technologies Corporation

Robert W Reed

William A Veronesi

Harry I Ringermacher

Andrew P Weise

Stevan W Akerley

Douglas A Kartsen

A computer (21) processes the time between ultrasonic echoes received at a transducer (19) indicative of the outer radius and wall thickness of a workpiece (10) by subtracting (69) the weighted average (80-90) wall thickness from the weighted average outer radius to generate an internal radius for a large number of points around a spiral slice of the workpiece. The internal radii and angles are converted (69) to x and y coordinates. The centroid (X, Y) of each slice of data indicating workpiece cavity internal radii is determined (71) as twice the summation of the x coordinates and twice the summation of the y coordinates of all of the datum points of the slice. The least squares fit (73) of the X coordinates of the centroids of all of the slices and the least squares fit (74) of the Y coordinates of the centroids of all of the slices are then used to determine the average axis of the cavity of the workpiece. The X and Y coordinates of the end points of the average axis of the cavity are then converted (75) to polar coordinates to permit offsetting the end points of the workpiece commensurate amounts, whereby further machining will cause the internal cavity of the workpiece to end up more nearly centrally located, on average.

Aligning average axis of hollow workpiece cavity with rotary machine axis

Processing ultrasonic measurements of a rotating hollow workpiece

An arrangement for detecting metallic particles carried by a fluid includes a metallic probe member which surrounds an elongated passage through which the fluid flows and which is constituted by a split tube having two marginal portions delimiting a gap which extends along said passage and completely separates the marginal portions from one another. Capacitors are arranged at the gap and alternating electric current is caused to flow in the probe member around the passage so that the probe member and the capacitors form a tank circuit having resonance characteristics that are influenced by any inclusion then present in the passage in a manner dependent on the electromagnetic properties of the inclusion. The character of any metallic particle then present in the passage is determined from variations in the alternating electric current that reflect the influence of such metallic particle on the resonance characteristics.

In-line metallic debris particle detection probe and resonant evaluation

In-line metallic debris particle detection system

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South Windsor, CT, United States of America

Robert W Reed