Compagnie Europeenne Du Zirconium Cezus

Thierry Ancillon

Maurice Gachet

The invention is a process for inspecting chips and/or fragments of metal or metal alloy to eliminate from them inclusions of a more X-ray absorbent material than the metal or alloy, wherein a field that delimits a portion of these chips and/or fragments is X-rayed. The process produces an X-ray image which is then converted into an electronic image. This image is analyzed in order to detect the inclusion(s) having features. The features include a background correction of the degree of illumination of each pixel in the field in the absence of chips and/or fragments, a field is covered with the portion of chips and/or fragments, and the electronic image is corrected by subtracting the background correction from the degree of illumination of each of its pixels, and the portion of chips and/or fragments is rejected if this corrected image contains at least one relative pixel corresponding to a chosen condition. Accordingly, the invention may be applied to recycling processes for metal or alloys in the fabrication of dependable parts.

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Albertville, France

Thierry Ancillon