One exemplary embodiment of this disclosure relates to a method of inspecting a component of a gas turbine engine. The method includes performing a through-hole inspection, and determining a location of the plurality of holes from results of the through-hole inspection.

Inspection methods, apparatuses, and techniques are described herein for identifying defects in a plugged honeycomb body (100). The inspection apparatuses and methods herein utilize reduced distortion imaging to identify the defects in the plugged honeycomb body. Backlit and/or directly illuminated images (by e.g. first light source 308) of the plugged honeycomb body (100) can be captured (by e.g. camera 302) and analyzed to align (by e.g. actuators 306) the plugged honeycomb body (100) in an imaging apparatus and to identify the defects.

A inspection method for a cylindrical honeycomb structure including a step of placing a cylindrical honeycomb structure made of ceramics on a rotation stage; a step of irradiating the side surface of the cylindrical honeycomb structure with light having a wavelength of 300 to 500 nm; a step of repeatedly capturing a reflected light from the side surface with a line sensor camera having a pixel resolution of 1 to 25 μm/pix while the light is irradiated to the side surface and the cylindrical honeycomb structure is rotated around the axis of rotation, with a depth of field of the line sensor camera being adjusted to 0.5 to 5 mm; a step of generating an inspection image of the entire side surface; and a step of determining presence or absence of defects on the side surface based on the inspection image.

A plurality of illumination elements configured to irradiate an inspection target region with illumination light obliquely at an identical angle in respective directions different from each other and equiangularly spaced from each other around an image capturing part are sequentially turned on and off. The image capturing part generates a plurality of pieces of captured image data by capturing an image of the target region in a normal direction when each of the plurality of illumination elements is turned on. A determination image generation part generates minimum luminance image data in which a minimum value among luminance values of the plurality of pieces of captured image data at an identical pixel position is set as a luminance value at the pixel position, and then generates determination image data based on the minimum luminance image data. A defect determination part determines existence of a defect based on the determination image data.

Improved inspection techniques are described herein for checking for the presence of and identifying surface defects on a honeycomb body. The improved inspection utilizes measurement of travel of an outer surface of the honeycomb body to collect images of the outer surface. The images are combined into a composite image showing the outer surface of the honeycomb body. The composite image is analyzed to identify surface defects.

Inspection methods, apparatuses, and techniques are described herein for identifying defects in a plugged honeycomb body (100). The inspection apparatuses and methods herein utilize reduced distortion imaging to identify the defects in the plugged honeycomb body. Backlit and/or directly illuminated images (by e.g. first light source 308) of the plugged honeycomb body (100) can be captured (by e.g. camera 302) and analyzed to align (by e.g. actuators 306) the plugged honeycomb body (100) in an imaging apparatus and to identify the defects.

The present application provides a method for characterizing defects in silicon crystal comprising the following steps: etching a surface of the silicon crystal to remove a predicted thickness of the silicon crystal; conducting a LLS scanning to a surface of the etched silicon crystal to obtain a LLS map of the surface, a LSE size of defects, and defect bulk density; based on at least one of the LLS map of the surface, the LSE size of defects and the defect bulk density, determining a type of defect existing in the silicon crystal and/or a defect zone of each type of defect on the surface. By applying the method, the characterizing period and the characterizing cost can be reduced, plural defects such as vacancy, oxygen precipitate and dislocation can be characterized simultaneously, the characterizing accuracy can be enhanced, and the defect type and the defect zone can be determined with high reliability. In addition, the method can be applied to all crystal defect types, is easy to operate, and is an environmentally friendly method for determination of grown-in defects.

An apparatus and method to align ceramic honeycomb bodies. The apparatus includes a light source to direct light toward a first end of a ceramic honeycomb body, a lens to receive at least a portion of the light directed to the first end of the ceramic honeycomb body, an imaging device to capture an image of the received light, wherein the image comprises a portion of a side surface of the honeycomb body. The apparatus comprises a controller configured to receive the captured image, to analyze the captured image based on the portion of the side surface, to adjust the ceramic honeycomb body and/or the lens based on the analysis to align the ceramic honeycomb body and the lens optical axis.

An apparatus and method to align ceramic honeycomb bodies. The apparatus includes a light source to direct light toward a first end of a ceramic honeycomb body, a lens to receive at least a portion of the light directed to the first end of the ceramic honeycomb body, an imaging device to capture an image of the received light, wherein the image comprises a portion of a side surface of the honeycomb body. The apparatus comprises a controller configured to receive the captured image, to analyze the captured image based on the portion of the side surface, to adjust the ceramic honeycomb body and/or the lens based on the analysis to align the ceramic honeycomb body and the lens optical axis.

An inspection method for a pillar-shaped honeycomb filter having a honeycomb-shaped first end face and a honeycomb-shaped second end face, including: allowing gas containing fine particles to flow into the first end face; imaging the entire second end face covered with the sheet-like light using a camera while the gas that has flowed into the first end face flows out of the second end face through the filter, and generating an image of the entire second end face covered with the sheet-like light; selecting an inspection area of the second end face and measuring information concerning a sum of luminance of each pixel in the inspection area; and determining quality of the filter based on at least the information concerning the concentration of the fine particles in the gas before the gas flows into the first end face and the information concerning the sum of luminance.