A Digital Analysis Approach for Estimating Decarburization Layer Depth of Carbon Steel via a Portable Device

Abstract

Decarburization layer depth has great influence on the quality of metal forming process. For determining the depth value, the inspector progresses the measurement by manual nearly, which is subjective and inconsistency. This paper presents a digital analysis approach for measuring the decarburization depth automatically. Meanwhile, this analysis can be carried out by a portable device. For the digital analysis approach, the morphology image process is developed by comparing the variation of gray gradient of image from edge to core region. While the histogram of grayscale gradient falling down sharply, the distance from edge to the point was defined as the ferrite decarburization depth. Meanwhile, if the histogram keeps decreasing and stopping the decrease at one point, then the distance from edge to that point was defined as the totally decarburization depth. For the portable device, the analysis software is settled on a cloud-based calculating system. The analyst can capture the metallographic image shown in the monitor by smart glasses. Then, the analysis result is shown in smart glasses directly. All analysis and calculation process are progressed on a cloud-computing system. Finally, a digital metallographic analysis approach for estimating decarburization depth of carbon steel specimen by a portable device can be carried out.