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Determination of glass thickness using laserbased ultrasound

ARTICLE JANUARY 2001
DOI: 10.1063/1.1373771

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Bruno Pouet

Seattle University

Bossa Nova Technologies, USA, Culver City

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DETERMINATION OF GLASS THICKNESS USING LASER-BASED

ULTRASOUND
Frank J. Shih1, Bruno F. Pouet1, Marvin B. Klein1, Andrew D. W. McKie2
^asson Technologies, 6059 Bristol Parkway, Culver City, CA 90230, USA
2

Rockwell Science Center, 1049 Camino Dos Rios, Thousand Oaks, CA 91360, USA

Abstract. Thickness measurements of glass plates and glass bottles using laser-based ultrasound
(LBU) are described. Ultrasound in the glass specimens was generated thermoelastically with either
a pulsed CO2 laser, or a Q-switched Nd:YAG laser in the case of colored glass filters. The detection
of ultrasound was accomplished by one of the following methods; a spherical Fabry-Perot
interferometer system or a photo-refractive interferometer based on two-wave mixing. A selfinterference effect, utilizing the partial reflection from the front and back faces of a glass plate was
also demonstrated to have sufficient sensitivity under certain conditions. The thickness of the glass
plates and colored glass bottles was determined using the fundamental reverberation frequency
obtained from the time-domain waveform data. LBU results were compared to physical thickness
measurements and showed excellent agreement.

INTRODUCTION
To avoid breakage during transport, the walls of glass containers, such as bottles
and beakers, must typically meet a minimum thickness tolerance. Therefore, it is of
interest to measure the container wall thickness, especially during the production process,
to ensure that specifications are met. To this end, we explored the possibility of using
laser-based ultrasound (LBU) techniques [1] for measuring the wall thickness of glass
specimens of varying degrees of curvature and color. An in-line laser-based thickness
measurement technique using laser-optical triangulation is currently available [2]. In this
technique, a laser beam is passed through the glass surface at a known angle; a portion of
the beam is reflected off the front surface, while a portion of the same beam is reflected off
the back surface after transmission through the glass. The spatial separation between the
two reflections is then used to calculate the plate thickness. However, this technique is not
well-suited for glass containers since it works poorly with curved or non-parallel surfaces.
Given that the second beam has to reflect off the back surface after going through the plate,
transparency of the glass can also be an issue. In this situation a tunable probe laser would
be desirable to handle various colored glasses, which introduces complexity and cost.
EXPERIMENTAL
Our approach is to use laser-based ultrasound to measure glass wall thickness.
Ultrasound in the glass specimens was generated thermoelastically with a pulsed CO2 laser,
or a Q-switched Nd:YAG laser in the case of a colored glass filter. The detection of
ultrasound is performed by one of the following methods: a spherical Fabry-Perot

CP557, Review of Progress in Quantitative Nondestructive Evaluation Vol. 20, ed. by D. O. Thompson and D. E. Chimenti
2001 American Institute of Physics l-56396-988-2/01/$18.00

287

I
I

Wlii

FIGURE I. Glass specimens with varying degrees of curvature.

00

FIGURE 2. Experimental setup of the spherical Fabry-Perot interferometer.

interferometer detection system coupled with an argon-ion laser, a photorefractive

interferometer based on two-wave mixing, and a self-interference technique that can be
used for glass plates with parallel faces. The bulk wave velocity in glass, for use as a
reference, was established using a conventional immersion pulse-echo system. The glass
wall thickness of various container specimens was then measured both by LBU technique
and by a dial-caliper.
The types of glass specimens used are shown in Figure 1. First, a flat window glass
is tested. The front and back faces of the glass plate are nearly parallel. This is the type of
specimen that can be handled by the current triangulation technique. To assess the merit of
laser-based ultrasound on glass with curved surfaces, we tested a 1000-mL beaker, whose
diameter is about 4 inches. Measurement was then made on several colored glass beer
bottles. The measurements were made at the lower portion of the bottle, where the shape is
cylindrical and the diameter of this region was about 2 inches. Attempts were even made
on a classic Coca-Cola bottle, where the front and back surface at any given point is highly
irregular in shape.
The spherical Fabry-Perot setup that was used for each specimen is shown in Figure
2. The excitation laser was a pulsed CO2 laser (10.6 jum). The COi laser is a suitable
choice since the glass is opaque at the operating wavelength and results in improved
ultrasonic generation efficiency compared with other available generation lasers. The
energy of the excitation beam was ~5 mJ/pulse, resulting in a thermoelastic excitation.
Thus, upon inspection, no damage was observed on the glass specimens after LBU
measurement. The probe beam, an argon-ion laser, is then directed to the same spot as the
excitation laser beam. The reflected light from the specimen surface is collected,
transmitted through the spherical Fabry-Perot cavity, and measured with a photodetector.
288

U-""^ \
FIGURE 3. Experimental setup of the photo-refractive interferometer based on two-wave mixing.

Another technique was also explored to look at the same problem. In order to use a
Q-switched Nd:YAG generation laser that was available at Lasson, a KG3 color glass filter
was used as a specimen. The detection system, shown in Figure 3, is a photorefractive
interferometer based on two-wave mixing. A probe laser (CW diode-pumped, frequencydoubled Nd:YAG at 532 nm), is reflected back from the specimen as the signal beam,
carrying information about the surface motion, while a reference beam is reflected off a
mirror. The signal beam and the reference beam then interfere in a photorefractive crystal,
producing a real-time hologram. The signal beam and the diffracted reference beam are
then combined at a photodiode used for coherent detection.
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

The time-domain waveform for one of the parallel glass plates is shown in Figure 4.
The measurement was done by spherical Fabry-Perot interferometer system. The laserinduced ultrasonic wave reflects back and forth between the two faces, building up a
reverberation, which causes both faces of the glass plate to move in and out at a
characteristic frequency. This frequency/is inversely proportional to the thickness of the
plate. Specifically, we have/=v/2L, where v is the P-wave velocity and L is the thickness
of the plate. From Figure 4, the periodicity of the time-domain waveform is plainly
visible. The resonance is best analyzed in the frequency domain. Using the P-wave
velocity of 5.81 mm/jas obtained from an immersion pulse-echo measurement, the
thickness of the plate is determined to be2.2 mm. The experiment is then repeated for the

FIGURE 4. Time-domain waveform of the flat parallel glass plates.

289

15

20

25

30

35

40

Time (MS)

Frequency (MHz)

FIGURE 5. Time-domain waveform and the corresponding frequency spectrum of the 1000-mL beaker.

1000-mL beaker. Both the time-domain waveform and the corresponding frequency
spectrum for the beaker are plotted in Figure 5. It can be observed that in glass with curved
surfaces, the signal strength in the time-domain decays rapidly. However, the fundamental
frequency, determined by the glass wall thickness, is still distinctly isolated in the
frequency spectrum.
The next specimens were glass beer bottles, which were the main subject of
interest. These mass-produced glass bottles are formed by blowing molten glasses into
molds. While the outer dimension of these glass bottles are determined by the shape of the
molds, and are relatively well controlled, the inner dimensions of the glass bottle are less
uniform. The specimen used in the next series of experiments is a Heineken beer bottle,
which has a green color. The same experiments were also performed on clear and brown
bottles and yielded similar results. Two locations on the opposite sides of the Heineken
bottle were marked for thickness measurements. The time-domain waveform and the
corresponding frequency spectrum for locations one are plotted in Figure 6.
The glass beer bottle was then sectioned off just above the marked location, and a
physical thickness measurement was made using a dial caliper. Using the reference Pwave velocity of 5.81 mm/jas described earlier, we calculate the wall thickness using LBU,
and compared the two sets of measurements. The results are tabulated in Table 1. It can be
seen that the two sets of numbers are in excellent agreement.
Q35
Q3
025
02
Q15
Q1
Q05
0
0

10

10

Time (micro-second)

FIGURE 6. Time-domain waveform and the corresponding frequency spectrum of the glass beer bottle.

TABLE 1. Summary of the LBU and physical measurement results of the glass beer bottle.
Glass bottle wall thickness
LBU
Physical Measurement
1.8 mm (1.37 MHz)
1.8 mm
2.1 mm (1.61 MHz)
2.0 mm

290

FIGURE 7. Time-domain waveform and the corresponding frequency spectrum of the Coca-Cola bottle.

The same approach was then applied to a classic Coca-Cola bottle to test the
limitations of this technique. The interior and exterior surfaces of these classic beverage
bottles are highly contoured and irregular in shape. Both the time domain waveform and
its corresponding frequency spectrum, are given in Figure 7. Note that the signal strength
is extremely small, on the order of 0.2 mV. The measurement was achieved only after
signal averaging and some careful alignment.
Another set of LBU measurements was made with a photorefractive interferometer
that was based on two-wave mixing. The experimental setup is shown in Figure 3. For
this set of experiments, a 2 mm thick KG3 color glass filter was used as the specimen. This
filter has very high absorption at the 1064 nm wavelength of the Q-switched Nd:YAG
generation laser. The time-domain waveform and its corresponding frequency spectrum
are plotted in Figure 8. The fundamental frequency of the reverberation is 1.25 MHz. The
fundamental peak is clearly distinguishable and can be used to determine the thickness of
the glass plate.
Much to our surprise, when the reference beam was removed, there was still a very
strong signal. The experimental setup, time-domain waveform and the corresponding
frequency spectrum are shown in Figures 9 and 10. The frequency spectrum gives the same
fundamental frequency as in Figure 8. Therefore, the thickness can also be detected with
just a photodetector.
Frequency Spectrum
Fundamental frequency
gives thickness

TO

Frequency (MHz)

FIGURE 8. Time-domain waveform and the corresponding frequency spectrum of the 2-mm thick KG3,
obtained using a two-wave mixing scheme.

291

Probe Laser

Speckled
Signal Beam

Detector

Color Glass Filter

FIGURE 9. Experimental setup in which the reference beam was removed from the two-wave mixing setup.
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Time 0/S)

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rfMt|piftey (MHz)

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FIGURE 10. Time-domain waveform and the corresponding frequency spectrum of the 2-mm thick KG3,
obtained using just a photodetector.

The same procedure was repeated on a piece of window glass. A pulsed CC>2 laser
was used as the excitation laser, while an argon-ion laser was used as the probe laser. The
result was similar. The frequency-doubled CW Nd:YAG probe laser (532 nm) actually
transmits fairly well in KG3 glass as does the argon-ion laser in plain window glass. Since
the probe beam transmits in the glass itself, there is a self-interference effect, in which the
glass acts as its own low-finesse etalon.
Specifically, the excitation laser generates an ultrasonic resonance in the glass plate,
in which the thickness changes periodically. The probe laser partially reflects back and
forth in the glass, causing multiple-beam interference. The reflected wave is then picked
up by a photodetector, resulting in a plot like the one shown in Figure 10. The advantage
of having such a system is its low-cost and simplicity. We also attempted to use this
technique on curved surfaces, but it was less successful. For best results with this selfinterference method, the two faces of the glass have to be reasonably parallel.
CONCLUSION

We have demonstrated the capability of accurately measuring the thickness of glass

of varying degree of curvature using LBU. The described self-interfering etalon effect
works well in transparent materials with nearly parallel surfaces, but is more difficult to
implement in curved surfaces. In-line determination of glass bottle thickness using LBU
appears feasible.

REFERENCES
1.

Scruby, C. B., Drain, L. E., Laser-Ultrasonics: Techniques and Applications, Adam Hilger, Bristol,

2.
3.

McCullough, R. W., Bondurant, P. D., Doyle, J. L., Materials Evaluation 53, 1338-1345 (1995).
McKie, A. D. W., Addison, R. C., in Review of Progress in Quantitative Nondestructive Evaluations,
edited by D. O. Thompson, Plenum Press, New York, 1995, Vol 14, pp. 523-528
McKie, A. D. W., Addison, R. C., Ultrasonics 32, 333 (1994).

4.

292