Phase-Contrast and Spectroscopic X-ray Imaging for Paperboard Quality Assurance

Sammanfattning: The end-use performance of a paperboard depends on its quality.The major properties of a good quality paperboard include consistencyin the expected ratio between the thickness of the core andthe coating layers, and the uniformity in the coating layer. Measurementsystems using X-rays to monitor these properties could assistthe paperboard industries to assure the quality of their products in anon-destructive and automatic manner. Phase Contrast X-ray Imaging (PCXI) has been used successfullyto look inside a wide range of objects using synchrotron radiationsources. Recent advancements in the grating interferometer basedPCXI technique enables high quality phase-contrast and dark-fieldimages to be obtained using conventional X-ray tubes. The darkfieldimages map the scattering inhomogeneities inside objects andis very sensitive to micro-structures, and thus, can reveal useful informationabout the object’s inner structures, such as, the fibre structuresinside paperboards. In this thesis, methods, using spectroscopic X-ray imaging andPCXI technique have been demonstrated to measure paperboard quality.The thicknesses of the core and the coating layers on a paperboardwith the coating layer on only one side can be measured usingspectroscopic X-ray imaging technique. However, the limitedspectral and spatial resolution offered by the measurement systembeing used led to the measured thicknesses of the layers being lowerthan their actual thicknesses in the paperboard sample. Suggestionshave been made in relation to overcoming these limitations and toenhance the performance of the method. The dark-field signals from paperboard samples with different qualityindices are analysed. The isotropic and the anisotropic scatteringcoefficients for all of the samples have been calculated. Basedon the correlation between the isotropic coefficients and the qualityindices of the paperboards, suggestions have been made for paperboardquality measurements.