A method for determining the quality of an adhesive connection between a metallic material and a polymer
The subject of the invention is a method for determining the quality of an adhesive connection between a metallic material and a polymer, which can be used especially to assess the quality of electric and electric-power equipment containing metal parts embedded in epoxy resin. Very often in medium and high voltage equipment metal parts are insulated in epoxy resins, which manifest good dielectric properties. Adhesive connections produced as a result of sealing metallic conductors, holders, melt-ins etc. in epoxy resin are subjected to the action of axial and tangent forces, which can damage the whole piece of equipment. Hence, ensuring high adhesive properties of the connection is of great operational importance, which calls for development of a non-destructive test method for assessing the quality of an adhesive connection, which would allow for assessment of such a connection in mass production conditions.
From patent description USA 5 088 327 there is known a method for determining the quality of an adhesive connection between an acoustic waves- conducting material, for instance metal, and a material suppressing these waves, such as elastomer. This method employs acoustic emission conducted along a wave propagation path in a conducting material, initiated on the surface of the conducting material and passing through the conducting material, and reception of the acoustic response in the form of echo emitted by waves reflected from the surface of the adhesive connection. In the presented method, the received signal
of the acoustic response is modified by a partial suppression of the portion of the signal, which comes from the emitted wave reflected only from the surface of the conducting material, and then the part of the signal which contains the maximum resonance peak of the modified signal of the acoustic response is retrieved in order to identify the recorded signal, by giving the amplitude value and the resonance peak width. Then the uniformity of the adhesive connection is determined as a function inversely proportional to the value of the amplitude and as a function directly proportional to the resonance peak pulse width. The acoustic signal is delivered to the adhesive connection through a rectifier unit, which incorporates a mirror for determining the path of propagation of ultrasonic radiation in the examined material, and which is connected to a spectrometer. The analysis of the recorded acoustic signal is made in the computer system of the analyzer, which is coupled with the spectrometer and a device, which images the result of the analysis in the form of a determination of the adhesive connection quality. In the presented solution, the courses of ultrasonic propagation and reflection paths in the examined connection are analyzed assuming that the induced acoustic waves do not penetrate the elastomer material through the adhesive connection. There are known solutions to problems connected with the examination of a metallic surface located under an insulating layer. For instance, from patent description USA 5 526 689 there is known a non-destructive method and system for detecting corrosion under the insulating layer of metal pipes. The method consists in artificial generation and introduction to a specific place in the pipe structure of a broad-band acoustic wave by means of a slotted simulator of acoustic emission. The introduced sound wave propagates in the pipe structure and its presence is detected in another selected place. Then an RMS voltage signal is generated, which corresponds to the value of the sound wave at the place of its detection after propagation in the pipe. The detected RMS signal is compared with a standard RMS voltage signal obtained for a non-corroded pipe. Occurrence of corrosion is shown for a case where the amplitude of the measured signal is lower than the amplitude of the standard signal. In the presented solution the quality of an adhesive connection between a metal pipe and its outer insulation is not examined, but only the presence or lack of corrosion under the insulating layer is detected.
The propagation of a sound signal in a layer of a non-metallic material is not taken into consideration in the two presented solutions. In electric power equipment, and especially in various types of transformers, epoxy resin, which is the outer layer for metal elements embedded in it, is a material, which shows the ability to conduct sound signals. There is no known method for a non-destructive examination of the quality of an adhesive connection between metal elements and polymers, in which the main part of the metal element is embedded in a polymer outer layer, which would use the acoustic emission techniques based on a simultaneous examination of the transmission of an acoustic emission signal running through a metallic material and a polymer.
The essential quality of the inventive method, which consists in running an acoustic emission signal through the examined area, is that the examination is conducted in two stages, and thus, in stage one, at least three sample standards of empirically determined properties are made, which properties determine the quality of an adhesive connection, and for each standard a specific input acoustic emission signal in the form of an acoustic wave of parameters depending on the dimensions and material of the standard is delivered, by means of an external source of acoustic emission, to the inner structure of the metallic element embedded in the non-metallic material, and the output signal of the acoustic emission is measured on the outer layer of the non-metallic material, after its propagation in the structure of the metallic element, the adhesive connection and the non-metallic material, after which the results of the measurements are classified according to the empirically established criteria determining the connection quality for each standard, and then, in stage two, the input signal of the acoustic emission determined in stage one is adjusted and then delivered to the examined adhesive connection and the output signal of the acoustic emission is measured after its propagation in the structure of the metallic element, the adhesive connection and the non-metallic material, using at least one acoustic emission sensor closely adhering to the surface of the non-metallic material, after which the measured output signal or signals are compared to the standard values of the acoustic emission signals, which have been obtained in stage one for
adhesive connections of known properties and, based on analogy between these results, the quality of the adhesive connection is determined.
Preferably the given input acoustic emission signal is introduced to the metallic part by means of a wave-guide connected to an acoustic emission converter coupled with a source of the acoustic signal.
The advantages of the inventive method are that it provides a simple way of assessing the quality of a product or semi-finished product and that it can be used in mass and automated production.
The subject of the invention is illustrated by an embodiment example on the drawing where fig. 1 shows a schematic system for implementing the inventive method, fig. 2 - an example of the course of the forcing signal for the tested sample, fig. 3 - an example of the course of the signal recorded for the tested sample, and fig. 4, 5, 6 - standard courses of signals recorded for samples having specific properties.
The system for implementing the invention comprises sample 1, which is a metallic element 2 adhesively connected with a non-metallic material 3 having the shape of a cylinder. The non-metallic material 3 can also have other, basically any shape; for instance, it can be a rectangular prism or a cube. An acoustic emission converter 5, which is coupled with an acoustic emission source 6, is connected to the metallic element 2 through a wave-guide 4. Another acoustic emission converter 7, functioning as an acoustic signal sensor, is connected to one of the head surfaces of the cylinder made of the non-metallic material 3. This sensor tightly adheres to the head surface of the cylinder and it is connected to a computer control and measuring device 8. More acoustic sensors can be connected to the outer surface of the sample, which is not shown in the drawing. The device 8 comprises, among other things, a comparison block 9, in which recorded acoustic signals are compared to the standard signals saved in the memory of the device 8, a block for analyzing recorded measured signals 10 and a control block V\_. A visualizing device 12 is connected to the measured signals
analysis block 10; and a control device 13, which is used to control the value of the acoustic emission source forced in sample 1, is connected to the control block 1_1_. The implementation of the invention consists in making at least three types of standard products for each product, for which we want to determine the quality of an adhesive connection, and empirically determining their parameters, which are to be used as the basis for the classification of the adhesive connection. The results of the measurements obtained for any product are compared to the results classified for the standard products. In this way, especially with mass production of products comprising metallic parts embedded in a non-metallic material, defective products are easily and efficiently determined.
An example of a practical use of the invention.
The test was conducted on the adhesive connection of sample 1 made of a brass element (a melt-in) embedded in araldite resin. Three types of adhesive connection of the same shape and structure as sample 1 were prepared as standards; one without a fault (perfect adhesion across the surface), one with a partial fault and one with no connection across the surface. Separately for each standard, by means of an acoustic emission source 6, a forcing acoustic emission signal EA1 was generated, which had a course as presented in fig.2, in this arrangement: the signal amplitude (given in millivolts) and the duration of the signal (given in milliseconds). The forced signal, after its propagation in wave-guide 4 and after reaching the metal part 2 sealed in resin, was suppressed when passing through the adhesive connection and the shape of the wave was deformed. The suppressed signal was then received by means of sensor 7 located on the shaped resin surface 3.
After completion of the examinations, three standard acoustic characteristics related to the quality of the adhesive connection were obtained. The standard characteristics are presented as follows: - fig. 4 - does not contain faults in the adhesive connection,
- fig. 5 - contains a partial fault,
- fig. 6 - no adhesive connection across the surface.
Next, sample 1 was examined in the same way as the standards.
The course of this signal, shown in fig. 3, was recorded by means of a computer device 8. The course of the acoustic characteristic obtained for the examined sample 1, shown in fig. 3, was compared with the courses obtained for the standard samples. The comparison showed that the examined sample 1 qualified as: no adhesive connection across the whole surface. The following parameters of the acoustic emission signal were used for the comparison: amplitude, energy, low-to- high level transition time, duration, number of counts etc. The recorded signals were assigned to the given standard and the quality of the connection was determined.
The results of the test are also presented in tables.
Table 1 shows the intervals of the amplitude values of the acoustic characteristics for three standard acoustic characteristics of the faults of the adhesive connection:
Table 1
Table 2 shows selected parameters of the acoustic emission signals EA2 for the three standard acoustic characteristics of the adhesive connection faults.
Table 2
Table 3 shows selected parameters of acoustic emission signal EA3 for the examined sample 1. Table 3
The examined sample 1 was assigned to the adhesive connection standard with no connection across the surface, shown in the first column of table 2.