Thesis

Development of a guided wave EMAT online inspection system for Al/Al-Sn/Al/steel and CuSn/steel bimetal strip bond quality control used in the automotive industry

Creator
Rights statement
Awarding institution
  • University of Strathclyde
Date of award
  • 2019
Thesis identifier
  • T15142
Person Identifier (Local)
  • 201575247
Qualification Level
Qualification Name
Department, School or Faculty
Abstract
  • Cold roll bonded (CRB) Al/Al-Sn/Al/steel and sintered CuSnNi/steel bimetal strips are used in the automotive industry for the manufacture of engine bearings, bushes and thrust washers. Any defects such as delamination or porosity that occur in bimetal strips during manufacturing can cause problems at downstream production steps and if they remain undetected, could result in components failing in the field, which is a significant business risk.;One way to reduce this business risk is to install a final inspection system on a continuous production line as the strip passes a fixed inspection point. In process control this could alert the operators to reject defective material and correct process parameters when the defect occurs. As this system requires 100% volumetric inspection, installing it has its challenges due to the harsh manufacturing environment in which the strip moves at up to 20 m/min in the processing lines at room temperature.;A literature review and feasibility study on different non-destructive testing (NDT) techniques to inspect bond quality of CRBed Al/Al-Sn/Al/steel bimetal strips was conducted to assess technologies that could be developed for serial inspection. Guided waves generated using Electromagnetic Acoustic Transducers (EMATs) was identified as best suited for this application. Since this technology was not available off-the-shelf, significant research and experimental work was carried out to develop an automated prototype system.;The system was successfully installed at a strip processing line and demonstrated the online bond inspection capability for Al/Al-Sn/Al/steel and CuSnNi/steel bimetal strips, which is the main achievement of this EngD project. For CuSnNi/steel strips, causes of defects and preventative control measures were studied and examined. Industrialisation of the inspection system will significantly reduce the company business risk and improve bond quality of bimetal strips.
Advisor / supervisor
  • Rosochowski, Andrzej
Resource Type
DOI
Date Created
  • 2019
Former identifier
  • 9912702391302996

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