Carbon fiber reinforced plastics (CFRP) are more and more used in aerospace applications because of their potential to considerably reduce the weight. Using CFRP, however, the problem occurs that at painted parts the paint thickness has to be measured non-destructively. Traditional procedures come to their limits because the substrate is only medium conducting and furthermore anisotropic. Therefore a mobile paint thickness meter had been developed to measure the paint thickness on plane samples of CFRP, CFRP with copper mesh, and metal. The present paper extends this development to measurements on curved surfaces. This method consists of two steps. In a first step the average liftoff is determined, which occurs when the plane probe is placed on the curved surface. This first step is also performed with the paint thickness meter. In a second step the paint thickness measurement is performed as on plane surfaces. This gives raw data, from which the average liftoff has to be subtracted. The result is the paint thickness on the curved surface. An example is given.
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