Non-contact phosphor thermometry for process control

摘要

Manufacturing and other industrial processes often require monitoring and control of temperature. Thermometry based on fluorescence properties of surface-bonded phosphors offers a number of advantages over traditional methods. The method is non-contact, remote, and independent of surface optical properties such as emissivity. Only a thin layer, less than 50 microns thick, is required of fluorescent materials that are temperature-active and chemically stable up to temperatures in excess of 1600 C. Phosphor thermometry has been developed from these high temperature extremes all the way down to cryogenic temperatures within liquid helium dewars. The fluorescence effects are stable in time, not subject to drift and repeated need for recalibration. Measurement techniques often involve use of optical fibers and other components that allow access into confined geometries and environments with high vibration, electromagnetic fields, or other extreme conditions. Uses include thermal management of cutting or shaping tools, monitoring of furnace and combustor walls or internal components, assembly components in automated lines, sheet metal surface thermometry, measurement of rotating components in motors, generators, turbine engines, and similar systems, fiber temperature measurement in textile fiber spinning, etc. Fluorescence measurement yields absolute temperatures, not dependent on references, and can have accuracies of less than 1 K, with precisions well below 0.1 K, providing opportunity for ultra high precision process control, life testing, and quality control.