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US 8,465,792 B2Granted
Monitor system for coating apparatus
AssigneeArcelormittal Dofasco, Inc.
InventorsDouglas Marriott, Robert Eric Mueller
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AssigneeArcelormittal Dofasco, Inc.
InventorsDouglas Marriott, Robert Eric Mueller
Estimating the term…
A spray monitoring device analyzes images obtained from a beam passing through a spray pattern applying a spray to a substrate, and identifies discontinuities in the image as indicative of a discontinuity in a spray pattern. The spray pattern is produced by a plurality of nozzles spaced apart across the substrate for applying a suitable coating thereto. The beam is produced by a laser, that preferably has a collimator for distributing the beam intensity. The beam is imaged by a camera that provides a constant image to a computers where the scattering of beam light by the spray pattern is processed by image processing software and optionally provided to a user interface for analysis. Discontinuities detected by the user or software indicate faulty spray nozzles and may trigger remedial action.
A method of monitoring the application of a coating to a substrate from a plurality of nozzles spaced apart along at least one dimension of the substrate, the method comprising the steps of projecting a beam of coherent radiation horizontally through a spray of coating comprising overlapping spray patterns from said plurality of nozzles, said spray patterns overlapping between adjacent separate nozzles in said plurality of nozzles, obtaining an image of the beam as it propagates through said overlapping spray patterns and processing said image to identify a horizontal band in the image, the horizontal band representative of the beam as scattered by the spray, and determining discontinuities in the horizontal band in the image indicative of discontinuities of said overlapping spray patterns between separate nozzles.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.