IR sensor for packaging coated products

The Reflectance Infrared Spectrometer from Honeywell uses proprietary array detector technology, designed to help reduce defects and amount of raw materials used.

November 11, 2010

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 more accurately measure and control multi-layer or barrier coatings and adhesive layers, discriminate components with very similar spectral characteristics, measure on printed and reflective backings, and quantify variations in additives and fillers such as Ti02 and CaC03.

“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 significant time over the off-line calibration methods employed by spectrometer-based sensors. Operators can choose between a basic ratiometic calibration or advanced chemometric calibration when measuring complex or multi-layered products. Additionally, RIS features internal optics that optimize beam focusing, automatic standardization that corrects for any drift in source spectrum or detector response, and fast response for high-resolution and precise spatial alignment.

Honeywell International

www.honeywell.com


– Edited by Amanda McLeman, Control Engineering, CFE Media, www.controleng.com