INTELLIGENT MICROWAVE SENSOR FOR MOISTURE MEASUREMENT OF PYROTECHNIC PRODUCTS DURING LAMINATING

A microwave sensor for moisture measurement of pyrotechnic products du ring their lamination is described. Although the structure of the mate rial, its density and its thickness change during laminating, the evol ution of the instantaneous moisture content has been successfully corr elated with the measured microwave signal. Validity of the correlation has been fully verified by a statistical analysis of the data. The ma thematical form of the function is established by an initial calibrati on but the numerical coefficients involved can be changed continuously to allow compensating for the drift of the measuring system and to al low the system to cumulate information so as to react intelligently.