Hardness test apparatus and hardness testing method

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10163201-B2
Application number	US-201615251324-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Aug 30, 2016
Priority date	Sep 10, 2015
Publication date	Dec 25, 2018
Grant date	Dec 25, 2018

Abstract

A hardness tester includes a memory associating and storing a parts program having defined measurement conditions with respect to a sample, including a test position, and an image file acquired by capturing an image of the shape of the sample; an image acquirer acquiring image data of the sample to be measured; a pattern matcher performing a pattern matching process on the image data of the sample using the image file associated with the parts program; a determiner determining whether an image file exists which has a shape related to the image data of the sample; a retriever retrieving the parts program associated with the image file having a related shape; and a measurer measuring hardness of the sample based on the retrieved parts program.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A hardness tester measuring hardness of a three-dimensional sample by loading a predetermined test force on a surface of the three-dimensional sample with an indenter to form an indentation, and measuring dimensions of the indentation, the hardness tester comprising:
a memory configured to associate and store a parts program having defined measurement conditions with respect to the three-dimensional sample, including a test position, with an image file including an image of a shape of the three-dimensional sample;
a camera configured to acquire image data of the three-dimensional sample to be measured;
a processor configured to:
perform a pattern matching process, on the image data of the three-dimensional sample acquired by the camera, using the image file associated with the parts program stored in the memory;
determine, as a result of the pattern matching process, whether a pattern matching image file exists, the pattern matching image file having a shape corresponding to the image data of the three-dimensional sample acquired by the camera;
retrieve, when the processor determines that the pattern matching image file exists, the parts program associated with the image file from the memory; and

a measurer configured to perform hardness testing on the three-dimensional sample to be measured and measures the hardness of the three-dimensional sample, based on the parts program retrieved,
wherein the parts program enables replications of a hardness test for the identified shape by logging a procedure for the hardness test, the procedure including at least a test position, one or more measurement conditions, and a test force to be applied,
wherein the parts program corresponds to the shape of the three-dimensional sample, and
wherein the parts program is retrieved automatically, by the processor, upon successful pattern matching process of the image data.

2. The hardness tester according to claim 1 , wherein:
the processor is further configured to determine whether an image file having a shape matching the image data of the three-dimensional sample acquired by the camera exists, and
when the processor determines that the image file having a matching shape exists, the processor retrieves the parts program associated with the image file having the matching shape from the memory.

3. The hardness tester according to claim 2 , wherein, when an image file having a similar shape to the image data of the three-dimensional sample acquired by the camera exists, the processor determines that the image file having the matching shape exists.

4. The hardness tester according to claim 1 , wherein, when the processor determines that there are a plurality of image files having the shape corresponding to the image data of the three-dimensional sample, the processor retrieves from the memory a parts program selected by an operator from among a plurality of parts programs associated with the plurality of image files.

5. The hardness tester according to claim 1 , wherein:
in a case where there are a plurality of image files having the shape corresponding to the image data of the three-dimensional sample acquired by the camera, the processor determines whether an image file having related sample data other than the shape for the three-dimensional sample exists among the plurality of image files, and
in a case where the processor determines that the image file having related sample data other than the shape for the three-dimensional sample exists, the processor retrieves a parts program associated with the image file having related sample data other than the shape from the memory.

6. A hardness testing method of a hardness tester measuring hardness of a three-dimensional sample by loading a predetermined test force on a surface of the three-dimensional sample with an indenter to form an indentation, then measuring dimensions of the indentation, the hardness testing method comprising:
acquiring image data of the three-dimensional sample to be measured;
performing a pattern matching process, on the image data of the three-dimensional sample acquired in the image acquisition, using an image file associated with a parts program having measurement conditions including test position defined with respect to the three-dimensional sample, the image file including an image of a shape of the three-dimensional sample;
determining, as a result of the pattern matching process, whether a pattern matching image file exists, the pattern matching image file having a shape corresponding to the image data of the three-dimensional sample;
retrieving, when the processor determines that the pattern matching image file exists; and
performing hardness testing on the three-dimensional sample to be measured based on the parts program retrieved, and measuring the hardness of the three-dimensional sample,
wherein the parts program enables replications of a hardness test for the identified shape by logging a procedure for the hardness test, the procedure including at least a test position, one or more measurement conditions, and a test force to be applied,
wherein the parts program corresponds to the shape of the three-dimensional sample, and
wherein the parts program is retrieved automatically, by the processor, upon successful pattern matching process of the image data.

Assignees

• Mitutoyo Corp

Inventors

• Sawa Takeshi
• Hanamura Takashi
• Takada Akira
• Maeda Takuho

Classifications

• G06V10/75

  Organisation of the matching processes, e.g. simultaneous or sequential comparisons of image or video features; Coarse-fine approaches, e.g. multi-scale approaches; using context analysis; Selection of dictionaries · CPC title

• G06F18/22

  Matching criteria, e.g. proximity measures · CPC title

• G06V10/759

  Region-based matching · CPC title

• G06T1/0007

  Image acquisition · CPC title

• G06T7/001 Primary

  using an image reference approach · CPC title