Advanced optical measurements in packaging

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February 2011 Sensors & Transducers

Honeywell’s newest IR sensor reduces defects in coated products.

Honeywell has introduced new infrared-sensing technology designed to help packaging makers significantly reduce defects in their coated products, as well as reduce the amount of raw materials used to produce them. The reflectance infrared spectrometer (RIS) uses proprietary array detector technology to provide the industry’s highest resolution and the broadest IR spectrum range, which allows mills to achieve unsurpassed quality by measuring multiple components of coatings, even on reflective or printed substrates.

RIS can be used in quality control systems like Honeywell’s MXProLine, which uses an array of scanners and sensors to monitor the quality of coated products such as liquid and aseptic packaging. The total solution helps producers measure and control multilayer or barrier coatings and adhesive layers more accurately, discriminate components with very similar spectral characteristics, measure on printed and reflective backings and quantify variations in additives and fillers. This approach can reduce defects by up to 15% and raw material usage by up to 8%. Additionally, the calibration tools can save time by cutting the calibration effort by up to 40%.

“Like most manufacturers, packaging makers are not only facing increasingly complex product requirements, but also demands for lower production costs and higher productivity,” said Jack Ross, global business leader for P3 and CWS. “The reflective infrared spectrometer brings those manufacturers closer to this objective and represents the industry’s move to increasingly sophisticated digital signal-processing technology that improves accuracy, resolution and flexibility.”

Specific features of the RIS include user friendly online graphical calibration tools, which save time over the off-line calibration methods employed by spectrometer-based sensors. Operators can choose a basic ratiometic calibration or an advanced chemometric calibration for measuring complex or multilayered products. Additionally, RIS features internal optics that optimise beam focusing, automatic standardisation that corrects for any drift in source spectrum or detector response and fast response for high-resolution and precise spatial alignment.

For more information contact Debbie Rae, Honeywell Southern Africa, +27 (0)11 695 8000, hsa@honeywell.com, www.honeywell.co.za

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