A noncontact, on-loom ultrasonic inspection technique was developed for real-time 100% defect inspection of fabrics. A prototype was built and tested successfully on loom. The system is compact, rugged, low cost, requires minimal maintenance, is not sensitive to fabric color and vibration, and can easily be adapted to current loom configurations. Moreover, it can detect defects in both the pick and warp directions. The system is capable of determining the size, location, and orientation of each defect. To further improve the system, air-coupled transducers with higher efficiency and sensitivity need to be developed. Advanced detection algorithms also need to be developed for better classification and categorization of defects in real-time.
展开▼