QUANTITATIVE MEASUREMENT OF DISPERSION OF CARBON-BLACK IN RUBBER BY AN IMAGE-PROCESSING TECHNIQUE

In this article, the quantification of dispersion of carbon black in r ubber is done by an image-processing technique. Surfaces, having diffe rent dispersion ratings, are mostly textured. These textured surfaces are digitized and the images are analyzed for quantification. Textured images are suitably represented by a closed set of orthogonal polynom ials. The presence of texture has been identified by suitably measurin g the orthogonal effects. The textured surfaces are described locally by pronum and globally by prospectrum. Mean, variance, and Fisher dist ance were computed from the prospectrums and are correlated to various dispersion ratings. There is a linear relationship between the calcul ated mean and the dispersion rating. (C) 1995 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.