Wear Debris Analysis using the Color Pattern Recognition

A method and results of classification of four different metallic wear debris were presented by using their color features. The color image of wear debris was used far the initial data, and the color properties of the debris were specified by HSI color model. Particles were characterized by a set of statistical features derived from the distribution of HSI color model components. The initial feature set was optimized by a principal component analysis, and multidimensional scaling procedure was used fer the definition of a classification plane. It was found that five features, which include mean values of H and S, median S, skewness of distribution of S and I, allow to distinguish copper based alloys, red and dark iron oxides and steel particles. In this work, a method of probabilistic decision-making of class label assignment was proposed, which was based on the analysis of debris-coordinates distribution in the classification plane. The obtained results demonstrated a good availability for the automated wear particle analysis.