How machines see defects
Machines don't look at colour. Profilometry measures height: a laser line bends where the surface steps, so gaps, overlaps, twists and bridging show up on black carbon. Thermal imaging measures heat: a defect changes how heat flows up through the laminate, so a gap reads warmer and an overlap cooler.
Predict · at 1:42 in the video
Now heat. A thermal camera looks at the ply just behind the roller. Over a gap, is the surface warmer, or cooler, than around it?
Warmer. Heat is flowing up through the laminate from below. Over a gap, there's less material to soak it up, so the surface reads hotter.
Automated Fiber Placement: Status, Challenges, and Evolution, Ramy Harik & Alex Brasington.
- Chapter 6, section 1.2
- Chapter 6, section 1.3
Simulations in this lesson are our own. Where the numbers are invented to show a mechanism, the video says so on screen.
