First Slide will go here

Laser Thickness

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Why make thickness measurements

Process monitoring
Ware
W and
d tare
t off the
th process equipment
i
t
Changes in feed stock
If you dont monitor, your scrap cost will go up
Global competition requires QC and cost control to remain
competitive
titi
Automation helps keep you competitive
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Typical Laser head measurement configurations

Piece parts
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Continuous feed

Why use laser sensors

Improved accuracy
Reduced cost
High speed
Can be synchronized
Large
L
standoff
t d ff avoids
id sensor ddamage
Large measurement ranges

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Why use lasers

Immunity to target characteristics
Eddy
Edd currentt probes
b can crosstalk
t lk andd sense magnetic
ti changes
h
th
they are
also subject to material composition
Capp pprobes require
q
a conductive target
g
Contact probes snag
Ultrasonic affected by humidity , heat air currents
Beta gauges emit dangerous radiation

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Laser Sensors
MTIs laser sensors have have a totally integrated CMOS sensor
within the head and a built-in
built in processor for data averaging and
filtering that virtually allows off-the-shelf installation.
Both sensors communicate with each other to synchronize their
data sampling which ensures the correct thickness reading and
eliminates the need for a separate
p
controller.

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Laser Sensors
The system provides both analog (0-10V), (4-20 ma) and digital outputs (RS485 binaryy format).
) Either can be used to determine thickness,, but analogg would
be the choice if very high frequency (>100Hz) response is anticipated.
High sample rate -40kHz which allows up to 20KHz analog output
Visible spot
Low power
Eye safe
Cut out bridge
Set up with lap top computer
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Computing the thickness

Total gap G = Target thickness T + (Gap A + Gap B) or
Thickness
Thi k
=G
Gap (A+B)
(A B) (Ref
(R f Fig
Fi 2)
Easy to do when sensors are absolute (ie 00-10V)
Tougher when sensors have a 0 point in the middle of the range
and vary from - to + voltages
Its
It best
b t to
t use 2 sensors that
th t have
h
the
th same sensitivity
iti it factor
f t if
youre going to use a summer and simple voltmeter for thickness
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Computing the Thickness

Fig 2
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Computing the Thickness

Fig 3

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Computing the Thickness

For example MTIs Microtrak II controller outputs a bipolar voltage (
( 5V)
p
standoff distance. You cant simply
p y run the analogg
centered about the specified
outputs into an inverting summing amplifier because the Microtraks output
voltage polarity changes. (Ref fig 3)
Youll gget errors if yyou tryy to use a simple
p summer
Easy solution add an offset to the heads to get 00--10V output then sum the
outputs To calibrate the display output put a target of known thickness between the
heads and zero the summer output. 0 = golden target thickness. All subsequent
measurements are relative to golden target
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Computing the thickness

To get the thickness multiply the summer output by the
sensitivity factor of the head
Negative readings are thinner, positive thicker

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Computing the Thickness

Of course you can also use the digital outputs of the heads. (Ref
fig 5)
Read the digital displacement and implement the thickness
algorithm in your computer or PLC

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Displaying the Thickness Data

Many possible ways depending on budget
The simplest is a digital voltmeter (Ref fig 4)
Manually convert the reading to thickness
Use a multiplying voltmeter to correct the reading to actual engineering units

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Displaying the Thickness

Fig 4

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Displaying the thickness

USB connection

Digitally connecting
MTI head
h d tto laptop
l t
via USB port

Fig 5
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Displaying the Thickness

Laptop display
of digitally
connected
heads
with MTI
remote
program
Fig 6
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Displaying the Thickness

The MTI program can display speeds up to about 100Hz (Fig 6)
You can select filters and cut time to bridge holes or gaps in the
target with the program.
program No programming skills are required
Its
It goodd for
f slow
l systems
t
andd initially
i iti ll setting
tti up systems
t

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Displaying the Thickness Data

High speed systems that are used for industrial control and
alarming require higher speed communications. Ethernet
connections allow upwards of 100mega bits/ sec communications
and there are a number of off the shelf data acquisition
components available to build such a system

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Fig 7

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Displaying the Thickness

The system above (Fig 7) uses a precision MTI thickness module to combine
the analogg outputs
p from the laser heads pprovidingg a high
g speed
p
real time analogg
thickness signal.
Various off the shelf data acquisition modules can be used to convert the
thickness signal
g to a digital
g value for pprocess control. We used analogg summingg
modules to avoid digital sampling and permit the use of slower data acquisition
modules as DAQ latency that can add errors to the thickness reading.
Using very high speed data acquisition can eliminate the need for the analog
summing modules.
100 x sampling speed of heads needed or head synchronization is required
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Displaying the thickness

Industrial computer working through a dedicated Ethernet network can monitor
the 3 thickness points and provide process feed back to control the target
thickness.
Industrial computer is especially needed when the parts being monitored are
di
discreet
t nott continuous
ti
sheet.
h t
Make sure the network is dedicated and not a plant shared network as the
thickness readingg typically
yp y need high
g throughput
g p
There are many great industrial process control programs available to simplify
this task
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Displaying the Thickness

The HMI display
p y can ppick off samples
p everyy second or so for
display while the process control software can operate at a much
higher speed monitoring the thickness and adjusting the process
to
t avoid
id scrap

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Why use synchronized lasers

If the laser sampling speed is slow with respect to the process speed head
synchronization is needed
Synchronization avoids errors by ensuring the lasers are looking at the same
spot top and bottom not spots skewed from each other.
This is especially important when target vibration is present
If the vibration was .002 inch and the laser heads sampling was delayed by
.008 sec (125 Hz sampling) then you could see a thickness variation of up to
.004 inch.
Analog summing can get around the synchronization requirement
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Thickness Fixture
This is where most applications go wrong
Insufficient
I ffi i t stiffness
tiff
iis usedd when
h planning
l i andd building
b ildi fifixtures
t
first order error due to tilt is cosine error where your error is the
standoff minus (standoff divided by the Cosine of the tilt angle).
angle)
A 3 degree tilt at 25 mm standoff is already a 34 micron error.
The
Th more precise
i th
the reading
di needs
d tto be,
b the
th more precise
i th
the
laser fixture required.
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Thickness Fixture

Fig 8

Typical low precision fixture mounts

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Thickness Fixturing

High precision thickness

requires high precision
laser mounts

Fi 9
Fig

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Two Newport tilt (Newport #39) and

yaw (Newport TSX-1D) adjustable
stages are shown with MTI lasers
attached.

Thickness mounting

Avoid this

Fig 10
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Thickness fixture

Improper design concept

concept. The poorly supported
cantilever arms will vibrate and cause thickness errors.
(fig 10)

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Thickness fixture

Fig 11

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Thickness Fixture
Proper design concept where both sides of the sensor supports
are fixed to prevent unwanted vibration. One side can be made
removable so the structure is easily disassembled for access or
service (Fig 11)
Ideally the laser mounts should be tied to the target transport so
common mode vibration is subtracted out

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System Calibration

Fig 12
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System calibration
Remove the target and replace it with a flat sheet of translucent white paper so
the two laser spots
p mayy be observed simultaneously.
y ((Figg 12))
Move paper up and down to make sure the spots are concentric upon each
other and dont separate
As you move the paper back and forth perpendicular to the heads youll
you ll see one
spot get larger while the other gets smaller. This is because the laser beams are
focused at the nominal standoff distance. As you move away from the nominal
standoff the beams expand.
More tricky if the target thickness is large and far out of range of the opposing
laser
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System calibration
Although the individual laser heads are already calibrated youll
have to calibrate the assembled system for thickness.
thickness Place a
target of known thickness in between the lasers and tare the
system to zero or set the readout device to read the actual
thickness of the known target. The system function for thickness
is Thickness = Total gap (laser gap 1 + laser gap 2).

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Overall system Accuracy

Assuming you havent introduced any additional error with poor
fixturing the overall measurement uncertainty will be 2*max
linearity error + the peak to peak noise at the bandwidth
selected because you
youre
re using two heads.
So typically the thickness accuracy is always 2X worse than the
laser head accuracy spec
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System Accuracy, the details

Lets say the head linearity is .05% FSR where FSR = 10mm. If the dynamic noise in
engineering units for the same heads is 3um pkpk-pk then your total measurement error
could be as high as 10um+ 1.5um or 11.5 microns.
You should also consider that fixture vibration and surface finish effects will also add to
this uncertainty, and could easily add a factor of two where the uncertainty suddenly
leaps to 23ums! Most laser head dynamic noise or uncertainty is given at a specific
bandwidth and typically when measuring to white paper. Actual targets can easily cause
larger pkpk-pk noise values.
You should always use pkpk-pk for error calculations. If RMS error is given, the pk
pk--pk
equivalent is typically 55-6 times larger than the RMS value.
T help
h l reduce
d
uncertainty
t i t ddue tto surface
f
fifinish
i h effects
ff t andd hheadd noise
i it iis often
ft
To
possible to use averaging techniques such as low pass filtering or a digital moving
average. It can actually make an impossibly noisy measurement suddenly very possible
and statisticallyy useful.
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Summary
The above are jjust a few ideas to helpp make yyour
thickness setup as foolproof as possible. Following these
gguidelines will helpp ensure the highest
g
accuracyy and
repeatability of your thickness data.

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