The non-destructive tests allow to establish the physical and structural conditions of a mechanical part, to verify its condition, the superficial wear and tear and then evaluate its `remaining' efficiency. The non-destructive tests are applied in all those fields of engineering in which the determination of the mechanical and structural characteristics of elements in use is requested, without making them undergo destructive or damaging tests. In the present work an application program has been developed which, examining the surface of mechanical parts under an optical microscope and a blaster video, is able to characterize the material and to recognize and identify the possible presence of a superficial crack. The program constitutes the first step towards the realization of an industrial prototype which, thanks to the utilization of a plan moved by step-by-step motors, allowing the scanning of the whole surface of a part and the recognition of the crack in an automatic way, that is without the presence of an operator, and its characterization, in case it is identified, through the determination of some geometric parameters useful to ascertain the structural integrity of the element under examination. For the realization of the program different techniques of image analysis have been applied and the use of an artificial neural network preset for the recognition of the crack has been necessary. The program has been realized in C language and it works in Linux system.

Date Published: 6 October 1998
PDF: 11 pages
Proc. SPIE 3521, Machine Vision Systems for Inspection and Metrology VII, (6 October 1998); doi: 10.1117/12.326982

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 3521:
Machine Vision Systems for Inspection and Metrology VII
Bruce G. Batchelor; John W. V. Miller; Susan Snell Solomon, Editor(s)