Container thickness measuring systems and methods
AssigneeAGR International, Inc.
InventorsGeorg V. Wolfe, William E. Schmidt, Jeffery A. Peterson, Edward J. Fisher
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Various embodiments are directed to systems and methods for measuring a thickness of a container. For example, a control device may receive data indicating a surface topology of the container and based on the surface topology of the container, instruct a multi-axis positioning system to position a sensor relative to a first point of the container such that: a distance from the sensor to a surface at the first point is about equal to a predetermined distance; and the sensor direction is about normal to the surface at the first point. Data indicating the thickness at the first point may be received from the sensor.
Claims21
A system for measuring a thickness of a container defined by a height parallel to a z-axis direction, a width parallel to an x-axis direction, and a depth parallel to a y-axis direction, the system comprising:
- a chromatic thickness sensor, wherein the chromatic thickness sensor is configured to provide chromatically separated illumination to the container and to receive a reflection of the illumination from the container, wherein the illumination is directed to the container along a sensor direction;
- a multi-axis positioning system mechanically coupled to the sensor, wherein the multi-axis positioning system is positioned relative to the container to translate the sensor along the x-axis direction, to rotate the sensor about the z-axis direction and to rotate the sensor about the y-axis direction;
- and
- a control device comprising at least one processor and operatively associated data storage, wherein the data storage comprises instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the control device to:
- based on a surface topology of the container, generate a first instruction to the multi-axis positioning system to position the sensor relative to a first point on a surface of a container such that:
- a distance from the sensor to the first point is about equal to a first distance;
- and the sensor direction is about normal to the surface at the first point;
- receive a reading from the sensor indicating a thickness of the container at the first point;
- based on the surface topology of the container, generate a second instruction to the multi-axis positioning system to position the sensor relative to a second point on the surface of the container such that:
- a distance from the sensor to the second point is about equal to the first distance;
- and the sensor direction is about normal to the surface at the second point;
- and
- receive a reading from the sensor indicating a thickness of the container at the second point.
A method for measuring a thickness of a container defined by a height parallel to a z-axis direction, a width parallel to an x-axis direction, and a depth parallel to a y-axis direction, the method comprising:
- based on a surface topology of the container, generating, by a control device, a first instruction to a multi-axis positioning system to position a chromatic thickness sensor relative to a first point on a surface of the container such that:
- a distance from the chromatic thickness sensor to the first point is about equal to a predetermined distance;
- and a sensor direction is about normal to the surface at the first point, wherein the sensor is configured to direct chromatically separated illumination towards the container and receive a reflection of the chromatically separated illumination from the container, and wherein the illumination is directed to the surface of the container along the sensor direction, wherein the control device comprises at least one processor and operatively associated memory;
- receiving from the sensor data indicating a thickness of the container at the first point;
- based on the surface topology of the container, generating, by the control device, a second instruction to the multi-axis positioning system to position the sensor relative to a second point of the container such that:
- a distance from the sensor to the surface at the second point is about equal to the predetermined distance;
- and the sensor direction is about normal to the surface at the second point, wherein the second instruction instructs the multi-axis position system to apply to the sensor at least one motion selected from the group consisting of translation along the x-axis direction, rotation about the z-axis direction and rotation about the y-axis direction;
- and
- receive from the sensor data indicating a thickness of the container at the second point of the container.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.