Method for obtaining information from x-ray computed tomography data for optimizing the injection-moulding process of short-fibre-reinforced plastic parts

Abstract

Method for obtaining information from short-fibre-reinforced plastic components sequentially produced by an X-ray computed tomography. A learning phase includes: generating CT data sets for a random sample of plastic components from a production process; extracting at least one defect-free region of the plastic components; determining characteristic feature(s) in the extracted regions, relevance of individual features, and regions which are characteristic of the plastic component type and production process thereof, over a predetermined period of the plastic components productions, which exhibit considerable characteristic differences between good parts and reject parts; and defining the feature(s) with its characteristic as trained classifier. An application phase includes: generating a CT data set of the plastic component for inspection; classifying the inspection part based on the trained classifier; examining the characteristic of the feature(s) for a negative trend; and automatically provide a negative trend alert and/or change process parameters to counteract the negative trend.