810 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INSTRUMENTATION AND MEASUREMENT, VOL. 51, NO.

4, AUGUST 2002

Basic Analysis of a Metal Detector

Sadao Yamazaki, Hiroshi Nakane, Senior Member, IEEE, and Akio Tanaka

Abstract—Metal detectors are extensively used to find unde-

sirable metal objects in processed food. In such a typical metal
detector, the coils are coaxially arranged with the transmitting coil
in the center and two receiving coils on the sides. The receiving
coils are connected to a differential amplifier. When the magnetic
field generated in the transmitting coil is disturbed by metal
objects, the amplitude and phase of the output voltage of the
differential amplifier change, and, thus, the existence of foreign
metal pieces is detected. The relationship between the amplitude
and phase of the output and the electromagnetic properties of the
metal objects, however, has only been discussed experimentally
so far. The authors have already developed the SRPM method to
simultaneously estimate the electrical and magnetic properties of
a spherical sample by vectorially measuring the difference in the
impedance of two circular solenoid coils, one with and the other
without a sample. An attempt is made to theoretically analyze
the properties, such as size, conductivity, and permeability of the
metal objects from the output, i.e., amplitude and phase of the
metal detector. Based on this method, an equation to estimate the
vector voltage induced in the receiving coil by the metal object
is derived by using a spherical sample to simplify the analysis.
The validity of the new formula was confirmed by experiments
using brass, aluminum, copper, and iron objects. The new formula
proposed in this paper is expected to be an important guide in
designing a metal detector, which in the past depended on the
experimental analytical method.
Index Terms—Foreign metal object, loop antenna, metal de-
tector, nondestructive test, SRPM method.
Fig. 1. Block diagram of the metal detector taken up in this study.
I. INTRODUCTION
the size and the electromagnetic properties of the objects has
T HE AUTHORS have been experimenting with the simul-
taneous resistivity and permeability measurement (SRPM)
method to simultaneously estimate the size, electrical, and mag-
been discussed on the basis of experimental data.
Therefore, an attempt at a theoretical analysis is made to de-
netic properties of a spherical sample by vectorially measuring termine the relationship between the properties such as size,
the difference in the impedance of two identical circular sole- conductivity, and permeability with the amplitude and phase of
noid coils, one with and the other without a sample. This method the metal detector. A spherical metal object is considered for
measures these values with high precision, and the validity of simplification of analysis. A new equation to obtain the induced
this method is confirmed [1]. With this method, the sample must vector voltage in the receiving coil by the presence of foreign
be stationary. When detecting foreign metal pieces in the food objects is derived. Experiments were conducted to confirm the
being processed in a production line, the objects to be measured validity of the formula using spherical metal samples of var-
are moving on a belt conveyor. Due to this fact, a metal detector ious sizes and electromagnetic properties. The induced vector
having a concentric coil arrangement as shown in Fig. 1 is con- voltage of the receiving coils was measured, and comparison of
sidered in this study. The coils are arranged coaxially with the the experimental and calculated values was made to confirm the
transmitting coil in the center and two receiving coils on each validity of the formula.
side. Although this type of metal detectors has been extensively
used, very few theoretical analyses have been conducted. The II. BASIC CONFIGURATION OF METAL DETECTOR
relationship between the amplitude and phase of the output, and As shown in Fig. 1, three coils are coaxially arranged at
a uniform distance. Each coil is a one-turn loop antenna. A
Manuscript received May 29, 2001; revised May 1, 2002. sinusoidal current is supplied to the transmitting loop from an
S. Yamazaki and H. Nakane are with Kogakuin University, Tokyo, Japan. oscillator. The receiving loops are connected to a differential
A. Tanaka is with the Ube National College of Technology, Yamaguchi,
Japan. amplifier. When no metal objects exist in the proximity, the
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/TIM.2002.803397 output voltages at both receiving loops are the same and the
0018-9456/02$17.00 © 2002 IEEE
YAMAZAKI et al.: BASIC ANALYSIS OF A METAL DETECTOR 811

output at the differential amplifier becomes zero. When external

noises are superposed on the output voltage at the receiving
loops, the differential output also becomes zero, since the
induced outputs from the two loops cancel each other at the
amplifier.
When a metal piece exists around these three loops, an eddy
current is induced in the metal piece due to the magnetic field
generated by the transmitting loop. The magnetic field gener-
ated by this eddy current induces a different voltage between
the two receiving loops, mainly due to the different distance be-
tween the metal object and each loop, generating a differential
output voltage.
The detection of metal objects with this method utilizes the
difference in the phases between the outputs from each trans- Fig. 2. Geometry of a spherical conductor and loops.
mitting loop and the differential amplifier, in addition to the am-
plitude at the amplifier. The output voltage from the oscillator where is the vector potential on the receiving loop. Using
is fed into a phase comparator through a high-impedance buffer previous work [1] of the authors, is expressed as
amplifier. Similarly, the output voltage from the differential am-
plifier is also fed into the phase comparator. The effects of the
electromagnetic properties and the size of the metal piece are
detected as changes in the amplitude and phase in the differen-
(2)
tial output voltage in addition to the effects of the location of
each of the three loops. The sensitivity of the metal detector can
be further enhanced by additional detection of such properties
of metal objects. (3)

(4)
III. THEORY (5)

As the subject of basic theoretical analysis, let us consider Legendre function

a case in which a transmitting antenna and a receiving loop
antenna are located around a spherical conductor as shown in
Fig. 2. The radii of the transmitting and receiving loops are
and , respectively. The center axis of the two loops lies on
the axis of Cartesian coordinates , and . The center of
the sphere of radius , conductivity , and permeability are
aligned with the original point of the coordinate system. The
sphere is assumed to be stationary. The distances of an arbitrary
point on the transmitting and receiving loops from the origin are
and , respectively. An alternating current with an angular
frequency flows in the transmitting loop.
When a spherical conductor is located in the alternating mag-
netic field, an eddy current is generated in the conductor, and a
magnetic field caused by the eddy current is added to the original
magnetic field from the transmitting loop. If the magnetic field
generated by the transmitting loop is a constant, the magnetic
field generated by the eddy current in the spherical conductor
changes in conformity with the conductivity, permeability, and
size of the spherical conductor and can be detected as changes
in the electromotive force induced in the receiving loop. The
voltage developed across the receiving loop due to an eddy
current is given as follows
(1)
modified Bessel function order
modified Bessel function order
When the two receiving loops are aligned in front and back of
the transmitting loop as shown in Fig. 1, the differential voltage
corresponding to the difference in the receiving magnetic field
can be obtained by vectorially adding the above equation in
conformity with the position of the loops. This equation was
described and calculated using the Mathmatica version 3.0
program.
IV. EXPERIMENT AND RESULT
A measuring device as shown in Fig. 1 was made to con-
firm the validity of the theoretical equation. Sinusoidal signals
generated by a phase-locked loop (PLL) synthesizer passing
through an medium-frequency (MF) power amplifier were used
to drive the transmitting loop. Identical transmitting and re-
ceiving loops having a radius of 82 mm and coaxially aligned
at a uniform space of 40 mm were used. The transmitting loop
was fed the sinusoidal current of 132.1 mA. Each output of the
two receiving loops was terminated with 50 high-precision
resistors. The terminal voltages of the two resistors were sup-
plied to a precision differential amplifier as input signals, whose
measuring operational amplifier contained buffer circuits. The
differential voltage thus obtained was fed into a lock-in am-
plifier. The driving signals for the transmitting loop are also
812 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INSTRUMENTATION AND MEASUREMENT, VOL. 51, NO. 4, AUGUST 2002

Fig. 4. Calculated and measured values of output voltage for aluminum ( =

Fig. 3. Calculated and measured values of output voltage for brass
( = 2
1:32 10 S/m,  = 1).
2
1:78 10 S/m,  = 1).

used as reference signals by the lock-in amplifier. The differen-

tial voltage signals were measured as the vector voltages using
phase differences to the reference signals. Twelve brass, alu-
minum, copper, and iron samples with three different radii were
prepared for each metal and measured with a micrometer. These
spherical samples were made by a cutting process. Before cut-
ting rod-shaped samples into spheres, the conductivities were
measured by the dc four-probe method. A toroidal core was cut
out from the same rod to measure the permeability of spherical
iron samples after a coil was wound around the core and its in-
ductance was measured.
The output voltage of the differential amplifier was measured
at 800 kHz, moving the center of the sample along the coaxial
line of the loops. The resistance and the inductance of the re-
ceiving loops were 0.4145 and 0.9273 H, respectively. These
values are used for calculation of electromotance on the re-
ceiving loops with the value of the termination resistor that
is mentioned above. The ideal output voltage of a differential
amplifier without a sample should be zero. However, the ca-
pacity of the common-mode rejection in the operational ampli-
fier, which is a component of a differential amplifier, is limited,
resulting in a small error signal in the output differential voltage
when a sample does not exist. In this experiment, the relation be-
tween the amplitude and the phase of the output voltage of the
differential amplifier without a sample is calibrated beforehand Fig. 5. Calculated and measured values of output voltage for copper ( =
to compensate the experimental values between the amplitude 5:90 2 10 S/m,  = 1).
and the phase.
The measured and theoretical values of the output voltage and as a reference point are shown in Fig. 3 for brass, Fig. 4 for
the phase shift against the distance from the transmitting loop aluminum, Fig. 5 for copper, and Fig. 6 for iron samples.
YAMAZAKI et al.: BASIC ANALYSIS OF A METAL DETECTOR
Fig. 6. Calculated and measured values of output voltage for iron (
10 S/m,  = 170).
The theoretical and experimental values of the phase shift
in these figures change about 180 at the position of the
transmitting loop (0 cm). The polarity of the phase shift depends
on which of the signals in the two receiving loops connected
to the noninverting and inverting inputs is larger. Although a
discrepancy of a few is seen in the values of the phase shift as
the radius of the sample is changed, the general tendency agrees
with the theoretical values. The phase signal changed from
90 to 90 when the location of the nonmagnetic sample
was changed from the positive to the negative side. In the case
of an iron sample, it changed from 30 60 to 120 150 .
It is suggested that detection of a foreign metal object is
applicable also to the distinction between ferromagnetic and
nonmagnetic samples. Therefore, it is suggested that detection
of a foreign metal object is applicable also to the distinction
between ferromagnetic and nonmagnetic samples.
The curves of output voltage for nonmagnetic samples such
as brass, aluminum, and copper having a radius of 7.93 mm are
bilaterally asymmetric as shown in Figs. 3–5. Discrepancy exists
between the calculated and measured values to some extent. As
for the iron sample in Fig. 6, the bilateral symmetry of the output
voltage was satisfactory and the discrepancy small. The reason
that better properties can be obtained for iron samples than
for nonmagnetic samples might be that the high permeability
of iron samples permits higher concentration of the magnetic
flux, resulting in more precise positioning of the sample. This
discrepancy for the nonmagnetic samples having a radius of
7.93 mm is assumed to be caused by the fact that the positioning
accuracy of the sample on the mount of polyurethane foam
813
is less due to the weight, and the influence is emphasized for
samples with large amplitude. A close correlation was found
between the calculated and measured values for magnetic and
nonmagnetic samples below a radius of 6.33 mm in spite
of unstable factors existing in the measuring system. These
results proved that the formula can be used for designing a
system for detecting metal objects.
V. CONCLUSION
A measuring system consisting of one transmitting loop and
two receiving loops to detect undesirable metal pieces existing
in the food being processed in a production line is discussed.
This method uses a receiving loop to detect the magnetic field
generated by the eddy current in a metal object when it exists
in the alternating magnetic field. At the same time, the phase
shift between the voltages of a transmitting and receiving loop
is measured, which enhances the degree of detection. A formula,
which estimates the relationship among the amplitude and phase
shift in the receiving electromotive force, and the radius, con-
ductivity, and permeability of a spherical conductor sample, is
derived, assuming the undesirable metal object to be spherical.
Experimental analyses of the electromotive force detected by
= 7:982 the receiving loop were conducted to confirm the theoretical
validity of this method. A satisfactory correlation was obtained
between the measured and theoretical values of the receiving
electromotive force for brass, aluminum, and copper samples.
The same applied to magnetic materials as iron.
The amplitude of the electromotive force detected by the re-
ceiving loops reached the maximum value in the experiment
with all the samples when the sample was located at the position
of the receiving loop. The phase shows a sharp shift when the
sample nears the position of the transmitting loop. This behavior
of the amplitude and phase agrees with the theoretical values.
The result of this study should be used for the estimate of the
circuit constant such as a gain for the design of a metal detector
rather than high-precision measurement.
The new formula proposed in this paper is expected to be an
important guide in designing a metal detector, which in the past
depended on the experimental analytical method.
REFERENCES
[1] S. Yamazaki, T. Negishi, H. Nakane, and A. Tanaka, “Simultaneous
measurement of electric and magnetic properties of a spherical sample,”
IEEE Trans. Instrum. Meas., vol. 45, pp. 473–477, Apr. 1996.
Sadao Yamazaki was born in Tokyo, Japan, in 1969. He received the B.E.,
M.E., and D.E. degrees in electrical engineering from Kogakuin University,
Tokyo, Japan, in 1994, 1996, and 1999, respectively.
He is now a Lecturer in the Department of Electrical Engineering, Kogakuin
University. He is currently engaged in the development of an analysis system
for noncontact measurement of electrical and magnetic properties.
Dr. Yamazaki is a member of the Institute of Electrical Engineers of Japan
and the Japan Society of Applied Physics.
814 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INSTRUMENTATION AND MEASUREMENT, VOL. 51, NO. 4, AUGUST 2002

Hiroshi Nakane (SM’85) was born in Hamamatsu, Japan, on September 19, Akio Tanaka was born in Saga, Japan, on December 14, 1948. He received the
1944. He received the B.E. and Ph.D. degrees in engineering from Kogakuin B.Eng. and M.Eng. degrees in electrical engineering from Yamaguchi Univer-
University, Tokyo, Japan, in 1967 and 1983, respectively. sity, Yamaguchi, Japan, in 1972 and 1975, respectively.
From 1969 to 1992, he was with the Department of Electrical Engineering, In 1975, he joined Ube National College of Technology, Yamaguchi, Japan.
Science University of Tokyo. In 1993, he joined the Department of Electrical He is now the Associate Professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering.
Engineering, Kogakuin University. He is engaged in the studies of high-
and low-frequency measurement techniques and the development of medical
instruments.
Dr. Nakane is a member of the Institute of Electrical Engineers of Japan, the
Institute of Electronics, Information and Communication Engineers of Japan,
and the Japan Society of Medical Electronics and Biological Engineering.