Non Contact Measuring Machine
Fernando D. Carvalho, Pedro Sebastião, Bernardo G. Henriques · Proceedings of SPIE, the International Society for Optical Engineering/Proceedings of SPIE · 1988
One of the problems of the production of cables is the measurement of the thickness plastic cover at the production line. If for some reason the thickness of the plastic is smaller than the minimum necessary several meters of cable may be lost. If the problem exists in the middle of a long cable and the default is not detected in time, the loss will be significant. To solve this problem it is possible to use automatic measuring machines which may detect a default as soon as it happens. It is also possible to interact with the production line in order to avoid any losses. In this paper it is presented a non contact measuring machine, developed for this purpose. The machine uses a laser which is scanned through a field of 80 mm. The interruption of the beam gives information about the external dimension of the object. The technical study of the resolution, sensitivity and precision are presented on the paper. Also the hardware solution and the software are presented. The machine has an interface which allows communication with a PC. The PC may receive information from several measuring units and to interact with machines installed at the production line. The prototype is finished and is going to be tested in the industry.