Patents Represented by Attorney Joseph W. Brown
  • Patent number: 4546652
    Abstract: Structural failures, as in metal aircraft structures, are rapidly detected and measured by use of a new detection system comprising a thin film adhesively bonded to the metal structural surface to be monitored, said film containing a plurality of thin continuous strips which are adapted to be broken when a crack appears under the strips, said strips being substantially parallel but insulated from each other and the metal structural surface and arranged in a pattern such that there is frequent change in direction of the strips as in a zig-zag or rectangular pattern, each of said strips constituting a separate circuit joined to an electric power source and a sensing and recording means capable of detecting and recording any circuit failure caused by disruption of the metal strip, said disruption being caused by the formation of a crack under the said strip.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 22, 1981
    Date of Patent: October 15, 1985
    Assignee: Materials Research, Inc.
    Inventors: Anil V. Virkar, Ram Natesh