Inspection of elongated material

Claim 2

Method of characterizing crimped tow for subsequent identification or quality control comprising the steps of (a) obtaining length measurements of the individual crimps in a sample of said tow, (b) graphically representing the measurement distribution of a sufficient quantity of said tow until a pattern is established, (c) using the pattern established in step (b) as a standard against which other tow is compared.

Claim 3

Method according to claim 1 wherein the graphical representation is in the form of a histogram.

Claim 4

Method according to claim 1 wherein the length measurements are obtained by analyzing the video signal from a video camera's photograph of the crimped tow.

Claim 5

Method of characterizing crimped tow for subsequent identification or quality control comprising the steps of (a) illuminating a sample of crimped tow at an angle to reveal the individual crimps in said tow, (b) photographing at least a part of said sample with a video camera to form a video signal representing the photographed tow, (c) analyzing said video signal to determine the luminance of picture elements, (d) producing an electrical signal from said video signal, the waveform of said electrical signal conforming to the shape of the tow being analyzed, (e) determining the slope transition intercepts of the waveform produced in (d) and using said intercepts to define the distance along the tow between selected intercepts, (f) producing a graphic representation of the population of crimp convolutions with respect to their length determined in (e), and (g) comparing the graphic representation so produced with respect to the graphic patterns produced by analysis of other crimped tow.

Claim 6

Method of characterizing crimped tow for subsequent identification or quality control comprising the steps of (a) illuminating a sample of crimped tow at an angle to reveal the individual crimps in said tow, (b) photographing at least a part of said sample with a video camera to form a video signal representing the photographed tow, (c) analyzing said video signal to determine the luminance of picture elements, (d) producing an electrical signal from said video signal, the waveform of said electrical signal conforming to the shape of the tow being analyzed, (e) determining the slope transition intercepts of the waveform produced in (d) and using said intercepts to define the distance along the tow between selected intercepts, (f) producing a graphic representation of the population of crimp convolutions with respect to their length determined in (e), and (g) comparing the graphic representation so produced with respect to the graphic patterns produced by analysis of other crimped tow.