Apparatus and method for automatic inspection of through-holes of a component

An apparatus for automatic inspection of a plurality of through-holes of a component, comprising:

• an imaging module adapted for generating a thermographic image of the component by passing a medium through the plurality of through-holes and capturing infra-red radiation emitted from the component while the medium is flowing through the plurality of through-holes;
• an image processing module, comprising a processor, adapted for generating a digital image from geometrical data of the component based on a viewing position of the thermographic image, determining positions of the plurality of through-holes by identifying depressions on a surface of the component in the digital image, computing a digital image mask for the determined positions of the plurality of through-holes on the digital image, fitting the thermographic image on the digital image previously obtained from geometrical data of the component, and for masking the fitted thermographic image using the digital image mask to extract regions corresponding to the plurality of through-holes in the thermographic image, the digital image mask being computed based on the determined positions of the plurality of through-holes on the digital image;
• and
• an analysis module, comprising a processor, adapted for evaluating the masked thermographic image to determine an irregularity or blockage in one or more of the plurality of through-holes,
• wherein computing the digital image mask involves setting pixel values of all bits to ‘1’ for a region corresponding to the positions of the through-holes on the digital image and setting pixel values of all bits to ‘0’ in the remaining portion of the digital image and the masking the fitted thermographic image involves a logical combination of the digital image mask with the fitted thermographic image using a bitwise AND operation.