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:
Nov. 17, 1992
Filed:
Jul. 16, 1991
Nile F Hartman, Stone Mountain, GA (US);
James W Larsen, Douglasville, GA (US);
Carl M Verber, Atlanta, GA (US);
Reynolds Metals Company, Richmond, VA (US);
Abstract
An apparatus 10 for inspecting the surface of an object S moving in the direction of travel 23 relative to the apparatus comprises a modular sensing head assembly 11 including a plurality of sensing head modules 12, 13, each of which includes a number of sensing stations 16-21. Each sensing station includes a light source 77, 81, 84 for generating a line of light extending across substantially the width of the surface of the object and a plurality of optical detector means for detecting light scattered from the line of light by the surface of the object. The optical detectors are positioned and oriented to receive scattered light scattered along paths lying in detection planes which are perpendicular to each other and perpendicular to the surface of the object. Signal processing electronics are provided to convert the light received by the detectors into analog signals which are multiplexed, converted to digital signals, filtered and then compared to preselected thresholds to determine the existence of any defects in the surface.