Method for detecting surface impurities by X-ray fluorescence analysis

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10705034-B2
Application number	US-201615337153-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Oct 28, 2016
Priority date	Oct 30, 2015
Publication date	Jul 7, 2020
Grant date	Jul 7, 2020

Abstract

A method for detecting surface impurities on a surface of a component by X-ray fluorescence analysis uses a hand spectroscope for application to the surface of a component. The hand spectroscope comprises an X-ray source, a fluorescent radiation detector, an analyzer and a display. The method comprises irradiating the surface of the component with X-rays using the X-ray source; detecting fluorescent radiation, which is emitted by the surface of the component as a result of the irradiation with the X-rays, using the fluorescent radiation detector; measuring a radiation spectrum of the detected fluorescent radiation; generating an evaluation result by analyzing the measured radiation spectrum using the analyzer, the evaluation result comprising a quantitative measure of the surface impurity of the surface due to predetermined characteristic substances; and outputting the generated evaluation result on the display.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method for detecting surface impurities on a surface of a component by X-ray fluorescence analysis using a hand spectroscope for application to the surface of the component, wherein the hand spectroscope comprises an X-ray source, a fluorescent radiation detector, an analyzer and a display, the method comprising:
irradiating the surface of the component with X-rays using the X-ray source;
detecting fluorescent radiation, which is emitted by the surface of the component as a result of irradiating with the X-rays, using the fluorescent radiation detector;
measuring a radiation spectrum of the detected fluorescent radiation;
generating an evaluation result by analyzing the measured radiation spectrum using the analyzer, the evaluation result comprising a quantitative measure of a surface impurity of the surface due to predetermined characteristic substances; and
outputting the generated evaluation result on the display;
wherein the hand spectroscope further comprises a radiation-permeable radiation window, a measurement chamber adjacent to the radiation window and defining a controlled volume, and a gas flush coupled to the measurement chamber;
wherein the radiation-permeable radiation window has a geometric position such that the radiation-permeable radiation window is configured to provide a focusing distance between the X-ray source and the surface of the component; and
wherein generating the evaluation result comprises comparing the measured radiation spectrum with one or more reference spectra of cleaned surfaces and/or of soiled surfaces.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the one or more reference spectra are stored in a storage device in the hand spectroscope.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein generating the evaluation result comprises comparing the measured radiation spectrum with calibration curves which are obtained from X-ray fluorescence analysis of substance samples.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein generating the evaluation result comprises univariate analysis of peak heights, peak widths and/or peak areas of radiation intensities of the measured radiation spectrum which are associated with the characteristic substances.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein generating the evaluation result comprises multivariate analysis of the measured radiation spectrum on the basis of a chemometric method.

6. The method of claim 5 , wherein the chemometric method comprises principal component analysis and/or partial least squares analysis.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the method for detecting surface impurities is carried out on a surface of a fiber-reinforced plastics material, FRP, component.

8. The method of claim 7 , wherein the FRP is a carbon-fiber-reinforced plastics material, CFRP.

9. The method of claim 7 , wherein the characteristic substances comprise components of release agents for producing FRP components.

10. The method of claim 9 , wherein the characteristic substances comprise silicon, hydrofluorocarbons and/or hydrocarbons.

11. The method of claim 1 ,
wherein the method further comprises flushing the measurement chamber with an operating gas using the gas flush.

12. The method of claim 1 , wherein the hand spectroscope further comprises a data interface, the method further comprising:
passing the measured radiation spectrum and/or the evaluation result to an external data processing device via the data interface.

13. The method of claim 1 , wherein the fluorescent radiation detector is positioned substantially closer to the radiation-permeable radiation window than the X-ray source.

Assignees

• Airbus Defence & Space Gmbh

Inventors

• Heckner Sebastian
• Wachinger Georg
• Meer Thomas
• Geistbeck Matthias

Classifications

• G01N2223/301

  portable apparatus · CPC title

• G01N2223/652

  impurities, foreign matter, trace amounts · CPC title

• G01N2223/1016

  X-ray · CPC title

• G01N2223/615

  composite materials, multilayer laminates · CPC title

• G01N2223/076

  X-ray fluorescence · CPC title