Commercialisation of CHOTs

无损检测不仅是大企业，而且对大企业至关重要。没有它，飞机就无法飞行，电力就无法产生，汽油就无法生产。它是任何安全关键业务的关键组成部分。超声检测是一种应用最广泛、用途最广泛的无损检测工具。主要使用压电换能器进行检测。这些通常是火柴盒大小，使用耦合剂凝胶或水连接到样品上，并通过同轴线连接到仪器（脉冲发生器）上。压电换能器体积庞大，价格昂贵，不喜欢恶劣的条件（如高温）。由于它们通过电线连接到仪器上，并且需要与样品（或水浴）接触，因此在许多情况下难以使用，例如在飞机机翼上，在燃气轮机发动机或风力涡轮机上。chot是压电换能器的一种替代技术。从超声波角度来看，它们的工作方式与压电换能器相同，但它们非常小且便宜，而且它们是无线探测的，仪器和换能器之间没有接触，使用激光束。此外，chot换能器本身可以用各种各样的方法和各种各样的材料制成，包括样品或试件本身。因此，它们可以在危险环境中使用。它们通常具有接近零的厚度，因此它们可以留在样品上，对其使用的影响可以忽略不计。因为它们非常便宜，所以可以用chot覆盖结构，这些chot留在原位以供将来的测试。chot换能器使用激光进行无线操作，可以远程探测（理论上为100米），也可以近距离探测。这使得chot成为一个有吸引力的系统，在进入困难或危险的地方。在这个提案中，我们想把我们基于实验室研究的chot系统变成一个可以在工业中使用的仪器。我们将利用EPSRC的原始研究成果和最近的一些进展来制造一个基于光纤的系统，该系统将允许chot以三种方式使用：手持扫描仪（如条形码阅读器），三脚架安装的远程扫描仪和内窥镜，用于检查难以到达的结构（如燃气轮机）的内部。我们希望将该技术授权给仪器制造商，然后他们可以制造和销售chot系统给工业中的最终用户。在我们设计和构建系统的过程中，我们将与仪器制造商和最终用户密切合作，我们将对其进行演示并将其出借以进行评估。该系统使用起来非常简单，对于现有压电系统的用户来说非常熟悉（使用非接触式chot换能器除外），因此它可以直接集成到他们的测量系统中。

Non-destructive testing is not only big business but it is critical to big businesses. Without it aeroplanes couldn't fly, electricity wouldn't be generated and petrol wouldn't be produced. It is a critical component in any safety critical business. One of the most widely used and versatile tools for non destructive testing is ultrasonic inspection. In the main this uses piezo-electric transducers to perform the inspection. These are typically match-box sized and are connected to the sample using a couplant gel or water and connected to the instrumentation (pulser) via a coaxial wire. Piezo-electric transducers are bulky, expensive and don't like harsh conditions (such as high temperatures). Because they are connected to the instrumentation by wires and need to be in contact with the sample (or a water bath) they are difficult to use in many situations - for instance on the wing of an aircraft, in a gas turbine engine or on a wind turbine.CHOTs is an alternative technology to piezo-electric transducers. Ultrasonically they behave the same as piezo-electric transducers but they are very small and cheap and they are probed wirelessly without contact between the instrumentation and the transducer using laser beams. In addition the CHOTs transducers themselves can be made in a wide variety of ways and from a wide variety of materials, including from the sample or test piece itself. Consequently they can be used in hazardous environments. They typically have near zero thickness so they can be left on the sample with negligible impact on its use. Because they are very cheap it would be possible to cover a structure with CHOTs that are left in situ for future testing.The CHOTs transducers are operated wirelessly using lasers and can be probed remotely (theoretically >100m) as well as close up. This makes CHOTs an attractive system where access is difficult or dangerous. In this proposal we want to turn our research based laboratory CHOTs system into an instrument that can be used in industry. We will use the original EPSRC research and some recent advances to make a system based on optical fibres that will allow CHOTs to be used in three ways: with a hand held scanner (like a bar code reader), with a tripod mount remote scanner and down an endoscope for inspecting the inside of difficult to reach structures such as gas turbines.We want to license the technology to instrument manufacturers who can then make and sell CHOTs systems to end users in industry. We will work closely with both instrument manufacturers and end users as we design and build our system and we will demonstrate it and lend it out for evaluation. The system will be very simple to use and very familiar to users of existing piezo-electric systems (with the exception of using non contact CHOTs transducers) so that it will integrate directly into their measurement systems.