The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Aug. 27, 1991
Filed:
Sep. 24, 1990
Manfred Potzschke, Kronberg, DE;
Hans-Peter Sattler, Bad Homburg, DE;
Kristian Hohla, Munich, DE;
Thomas R Loree, Los Alamos, NM (US);
Metallgesellschaft Aktiengesellschaft, Frankfurt am Main, DE;
Abstract
Disclosed is a process and apparatus to analyze metal particles to determine their composition and to generate a sorting signal. The particles are exposed to a pulsed laser beam by which they are partly vaporized to form a plasma so that the particles are cleaned and the cleaned area is subsequently partially vaporized by a pulsed laser beam to form a plasma. The spectral lines of the plasma are inspected for an identification of the composition of the metal particles. The required inspection rate of 30 particles per second can readily be achieved or even exceeded if a defined narrow wavelength range or a defined wavelength is filtered from the total radiation that is emitted by the plasma and the intensities of the filtered partial radiations are related to each other to obtain ratios, which are compared with adjustable limiting values. A sorting signal is derived from the result of said comparison. The inspection rate can be improved in that the partial radiation is subjected to a comparison only for a defined interval of time.