Innovative Real Time Probes for Plastic Bonded Exp

In this proposal, AlphaSense, Inc. proposes to develop an innovative real time probe for online monitoring of plastic bonded explosive manufacturing process. Key innovations of the proposed sensor probe include: a) the use of a white light interferometer (WLI) to form real time images of the particles for accurate particle size measurements, and b) the use of quartz crystal microbalance (QCM) based devices for viscosity and water content measurements. With these innovations, the proposed sensor probe will have the following merits: 1) Simple, compact, and low cost, 2) Capable of providing all the necessary information, 3) High sensitivity, 4) Large dynamic range, 5) Superior stability, and 6) Automatic data acquisition and easy interpretation.