Polytec GmbH

The laser-based coating thickness measurement system is working completely contact-free. The opaque, semi-transparent or transparent coating is measured from a working distance of 5 to 20 cm using laser and infrared sensors. It is designed for industrial environmental conditions, i.e. also on conveyor belts, at high temperatures and in a wet or brittle condition.

The measurement is non-destructive and tactile unaffected. The excitation laser generates only slight heating, so that neither the object nor the coating are affected.

The measurement takes less than a second. It is based on a physical model that allows the system to be pre-calibrated according to the application. The calibration is both faster and easier to implement than with conventional methods. For some applications, calibration can even be omitted entirely.

The small dimensions of the measuring head (75 x 32 x 41 mm with a weight of 150 g) enable measurements in places that were previously absolutely inaccessible.

The T-Ray 5000 systems are among the fastest terahertz measurement systems available on the market. It can measure thickness down to 50 microns at a rate of 1,000 measurements per second without nuclear or ionizing radiation.

Typical applications are

• Industrial process control for real-time measurements in continuous manufacturing applications
• Quality control and non-destructive testing (NDT) for high precision, reproducibility and repeatability
• Imaging through material, terahertz waves penetrate most materials and can easily reveal defects such as voids, cracks and density variations
• Spectroscopic measurements, with pulsed time-domain terahertz data, objects such as explosives and biological agents can be spectroscopically determined