Metallic contaminant detection system using multi-channel high Tc SQUIDs

We have developed the magnetic metallic contaminant detectors using multiple high Tc SQUID gradiometers for industrial products. Finding ultra-small metallic contaminants is a big issue for manufacturers producing commercial products. The quality of industrial products such as lithium ion batteries can deteriorate by the inclusion of tiny metallic contaminants. When the contamination does occur, the manufacturer of the product suffers a great loss to recall the tainted products. Metallic particles with outer dimension less than 50 μm cannot be detected by a conventional X-ray imaging. Therefore a high sensitive detection system for small foreign matters is required. However, in most of the cases, the matrix of an active material coated sheet electrode is magnetized and the magnetic signal from the matrix is large enough to mask the signal from contaminants. Thus we have developed a detection system based on a SQUID gradiometer and a horizontal magnetization to date. For practical use, we should increase the detection width of the system by employing multiple sensors. We successfully realized an eight-channel high-Tc SQUID gradiometer system for inspection of sheet electrodes of a lithium ion battery with width of at least 60 to 70 mm. Eight planar SQUID gradiometers were mounted with a separation of 9.0 mm. As a result, small iron particles of less than 50 μm were successfully measured. This result suggests that the system is a promising tool for the detection of contaminants in a lithium ion battery.