Paint thickness determination
Research of the University of West Bohemia recently focused on a fast contactless measurement of paint thickness non-uniformity using flash pulse thermography.
Specimens sprayed by a paint were thermally excited by a flash lamp and temperature responses were recorded by an infrared camera. The recorded sequences were post-processed with Fast Fourier Transform to obtain phase angles. Differences in the resulting images showed phase differences which corresponded to a paint thickness non-uniformity. Furthermore, the phases were correlated with the thickness by means of a calibration curve so that the paint thickness could be determined with flash pulse phase thermography measurement. The method showed a promising potential in the contactless evaluation of the paint thickness. Average error of the thickness determination was less than 10 % for samples with paint thickness from 41 to 74 μm on AISI 304 substrate. Advantages, disadvantages and limitations of described method were discussed.
Further information: Muzika, Lukas & Svantner, Michal. (2020). Flash pulse phase thermography for a paint thickness determination. IOP Conference Series: Materials Science and Engineering. 723. 012021. 10.1088/1757-899X/723/1/012021.