The control of quality is an extremely important part of production processes, especially in medical applications. At the same time, its implementation is often very difficult to perform, especially when it is necessary to measure liquid in test tubes or to measure the thickness of glass in the production of solar panels. In such cases, the confocal sensors provided by Micro-Epsilon will be perfectly suited.
Many laboratory processes are automated, however it happens that it is necessary to fill the tubes for testing small batches of preparations manually. In such tests, it is extremely important to check whether the correct amount of preparation has been placed in each tube. Measurement of liquids in small, glass tubes is a big challenge, but not for a confocal system that is simply created for such tasks.
The confocalDT confocal-chromatic measurement system consists of a controller with a LED light source and a sensor. The sensor is connected to the controller via fiber optics at distances of up to 50 m. The distance of the focal point varies due to the chromatic aberration of the sensor's optics. During the measurement, the lenses are used to disperse white light into waves of different ranges, which are then focused perpendicular to the object being examined. The reflected light is transmitted on the CCD matrix, and each point on the matrix indicates a different long wave, i.e. the distance between the object and the sensor. | .jpg) |
 | Confocal sensors in a liquid measurement application in laboratory tubes sequentially measure the content of each tube placed on the plate, and the system checks the distance between the sensor and the liquid in each of them with nanometer accuracy. The confocalDT 2451/2471 controller processes data with a frequency of 10 kHz for white LED light or 70 kHz for xenon light. The controller is equipped with Ethernet, EtherCat, RS422 and analog interfaces. Due to the intuitive network interface, no additional software is required to configure the sensor, in addition, special thickness control functions are available in the controller. |
Standard confocal sensors can be tilted and also measure at a 90 ° angle, which means they can work with the same performance even if the meniscus is large. Confocal sensors can be used to measure each type of liquid. Thanks to the small size, you can attach several sensors parallel to each other to make several measurements at the same time.
Apart from measuring liquids, another interesting application for this sensor is the measurement of the thickness of transparent foil, cardboard or several layers of glass, eg in solar panels or car windows. Unlike other techniques, this measurement method requires only one sensor, additionally it is possible to set the measurement up to six layers in the controller. In measuring the thickness, reflections are analyzed from the central points on the front and back surfaces of the objects. Sensors can also be used in hazardous or potentially explosive areas and in an environment in which electromagnetic radiation occurs.
