Essentially the idea is to improvise with crossover technologies to "see" different surfaces in different ways. Ever hear of a Sound Spectrum Analyzer? It gives you a running profile of multiple frequencies of any sound in real time. You can download it to your phone as I have free and profile any sound. In theory I should be able to join this to a stethoscope and record the sound created by moving different materials such as a penny over glass surfaces. So now I will be "seeing" glass surfaces with sound. The beginning of a new way to understand defective scratch sensitive surfaces. Just bought a four pound chunk of ultrapure silicon. NOT glass. Silicon.
It is rather brittle. So a single strike with a hammer will break it. I have learned that a small piece with a sharp point is very effective at "feeling" a glass surface. Now I just have to get a quality stethoscope and connect it to the SSA app on my phone. The scope can be placed on the glass while running a piece of silicon over the glass. The sound that is created moves through the glass and into the stethoscope. Which I can connect to my phone that has the SSA app.
Phones have many apps that can be downloaded that allow for some very interesting Inspect Tech products. Such as handheld lighted microscopes for viewing blemishes, point impact fractures (PIFs), and scratches on glass. As pictures and videos. I have a couple of other posts in this blog with pictures I have taken. The images are transmitted by the app and the net to my phone. Then I can send them to my computer and include them in the posts that I write here. What I have already discovered is I can create a homogenous scratch sensitive surface with cerium oxide and make specific scratches with different implements like different metals, rocks/minerals, etc. Scratches actually have identities characteristic to what caused them. So by categorizing them I can figure out what most likely caused scratches in the field. Can't date them yet. But I am advancing.
Another tool I am working on is one that will tell the degree of negative deflection over a certain distance and area. I know there are tools that can do this using lasers. So I will look there first. But currently I have had much success with a simple six inch Triumph razor. Move it in one direction then another at 90 degrees of the first and take pictures of the results. The greater the amount of soapy water left behind the more concave the negative deflection.
Then another is to use a light fog to show contamination of the micro-surface. Usually I just use my own breath on a day with the right dew point. But it is possible to quickly fog out an entire plate of glass using a cold sound generated fogging machine. Then what if I were to use more than pure water? Will different solutions create different effects and show different results? These results are all measurable by using the hand held lighted microscope I mentioned earlier. Because fog that condenses on glass forms little micro-drops. Which differ in size and can be seen in the microscope. The size depends on what chemical is on the glass.
There is actually no limit to the inspect tech tools or products that are already out there and that can be developed. The only limit is our imagination.
My goal is to have a couple suitcases with these tools so when I arrive on site at the building I am consulting on I can open it up and get some real data!
Again if you have some buildings you would like some help with just send me an email. Especially if you are in the New England area. And the first talk is always free.
Henry Grover Jr.
Glass Smart Consulting
