Striagraph
The sophisticated appliance for displaying and recording of the inhomogeneities within the glass sheet.
The appliance Striagraph, type Striatter 1000 presents an up-to date appliance which creates automatically the image of striaes (so-called “striagram”) of the flat glass sample. The term “striagram” means the image of the hazes, bubbles, and other inhomogeneities in the glass thickness, as scanned along the glass sheet sample. The “striagrams” provide for the inspection of the flat glass quality as well for the testing of colour-penetration of the coloured glass. Concerning the sample, it is the glass stripe having width of 2 to 25 millimetres, cut-out from the glass sheet. In case that the glass strip’s length exceeds 1000 millimetres, it will be automatically divided into several pieces – samples. The glass sample is to be inserted (in the exactly defined position) into the glass container being located in the striagraph’s upper portion. The sides of this container are made of the glass without any optical faults, and the container is filled up with the immersion liquid having the same refractive index as the one of the glass sample. In this way the light reflections on the cut edges of the glass sample are eliminated. For example, the immersion liquid type 5040 (produced by Cargille Labs) may be used. This liquid is available with various values of refractive index nD, within the range from 1,459 to 1,570. The optical system consists of the source of monochromatic collimated light which shines through the glass sample, and the CMOS camera with lens. This optical system moves along the sample being measured, and it takes the particular snapshots. When taking individual snapshots of the glass sample, no darkening of the room is necessary and both the operator and appliance operates under normal working conditions. Afterwards the taking of individual snapshots is completed, these individual snapshots are combined into only one record, and the “striagram” for the glass sample is created.
The appliance Striagraph, model Striatter 1000 is fixes onto the worktable which is delivered as the portion of the entire appliance. The electric switchboard with control electronics is fixed to the frame of this worktable, and the LCD monitor 17″, keyboard and operator’s PC are located at the worktable’s desktop. This monitor displays the user-friendly interface of the application software, which provides for control of the complete appliance.
Using the PC, the operator will enter all identification data concerning the test and the sample being measured (i.e. number of the test, date and time, glass thickness, operator’s name, and so on), and afterwards he will start the process of taking individual snapshots of the glass sample. Afterwards the taking of individual snapshots is finished, an automatic completion of these individual snapshots is performed, and the “striagram” for the glass sample is created together with the Test record.
The Test protocols and striagrams of the glass samples may be examined and further evaluated. The software of stress measuring appliance Striagraph, model Striatter 1000 contains some tools intended for the above mentioned activity.