Optics: measuring and testing – Inspection of flaws or impurities – Transparent or translucent material
Patent
1997-12-15
1999-11-23
Font, Frank G.
Optics: measuring and testing
Inspection of flaws or impurities
Transparent or translucent material
3562371, 3562394, G01N 2100
Patent
active
059910186
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to apparatus and methods for inspecting conditions of a coating layer applied on a surface of a container such as a bottle, more specifically relates to apparatus and methods for inspecting thickness and deteriorating situation of a coating layer applied on a surface of a container so as to maintain sufficient strength of the container which is lightened in weight.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
As a container used for filling beverages, for example, a container such as a bottle made of glass has been widely used.
Recently, the bottle mentioned above is to be lightened in weight in order to benefit convenience in transportation thereof. A means of forming a coating layer on the surface of the bottle is applied in order to prevent the bottle from weakening in strength due to the introduction of lightening the bottle in weight. Metal oxide coating layer such as SnO2 or TiO2 is formed by means of a so-called hot end coating process on the surface of the bottle for this purpose.
The hot end coating process is a technique in which a reaction gas is sprayed on the surface of the bottle, during the time when the surface thereof still has a relatively higher temperature prior to the application of a slow cooling thereto upon manufacturing the bottle, to form an oxide coating layer of SnO2 or TiO2 on the surface of the bottle.
The thickness of the coating layer should fall within a prescribed scope to maintain a mechanical strength (i.e., durability) of the bottle. With a thin coating layer outside the scope, bottles contact with each other upon transporting thereof to result in causing a scratch on the surface of the bottle so that it becomes difficult to maintain the desired strength of the bottle, thus cracking the bottle.
On the other hand, with a thick coating layer outside the scope, a rainbow-like pattern is produced on the surface of the bottle due to the interference of the light (especially, in a visible light range), which pattern looks like a oil film adhering on the surface of the bottle, to result in deteriorating a fine view, lowering the value of the commodity and wasting the reaction gas.
Accordingly, it is desirable to severely inspect the thickness of the coating layer formed on the surface of the bottle.
Conventionally, the inspection of the thickness of the coating layer formed on the surface of the bottle has been carried out by an apparatus for measuring the thickness thereof by means of contacting the bottle to be inspected (hereinafter referred to as a "contact-type measuring apparatus"), for example, a hot end coating meter manufactured by American Glass Research, Inc. Thereby the thickness of the coating layer is detected and measured by contacting a light emitting/sensoring device with the surface of the bottle.
However, in the contact-type measuring apparatus, it is necessary to adjust an angle of the light emitting/sensoring device so as to receive the maximum amount of the light. There is therefore a problem that it requires a well trained skill to measure the thickness of the coating layer, and furthermore, even a man of well trained skill has to take time to do the same.
Furthermore, in the contact-type measuring apparatus, silicone oil as an optical coupling fluid has to be immersed on the surface of the bottle when the light emitting/sensoring device is contacted with the bottle. It is therefore necessary to wipe out the immersion fluid after the thickness is measured. Because it takes time to wipe out the painted oil, the bottles used for measuring the thickness of the coating layer are discarded in general.
In general, the bottles are sampled to detect and measure the thickness of the coating layer in the manufacturing process of the bottles. It is therefore necessary to increase the number of the inspections in order to obtain the overall information about the situation of the coating layer of the manufactured bottles, thus increasing the number of bottles to be discarded, and lowering efficiency of the inspection.
Japanese
REFERENCES:
patent: 3749923 (1973-07-01), Husome
patent: 4017194 (1977-04-01), Conroy et al.
patent: 4693376 (1987-09-01), Marion et al.
patent: 4791287 (1988-12-01), Fisher
patent: 4859863 (1989-08-01), Schrader et al.
patent: 5139406 (1992-08-01), Hoshino et al.
patent: 5755335 (1998-05-01), Michelotti et al.
Amano Tsutomu
Amino Yoshito
Imaizumi Junjirou
Take Yoshimoto
Font Frank G.
Kirin Beer Kabushiki Kaisha
Stafira Michael P.
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