This question reached wenglor. The application’s challenge: the thickness measurement of the medical nonwoven must be continuous – even with changing colors. A task that is not so trivial in practice. This is because optical measuring methods often reach their limits as soon as the surface finish or color of the material changes. This is precisely where the wenglor solution comes in.
For punctual, continuous thickness measurement, wenglor uses two laser distance sensors from the P3 series, which can be arranged opposite each other. Both sensors are connected to each other via an intelligent T-piece. This connection ensures that the sensors work automatically in so-called “thickness measurement mode” – according to the master-slave principle.
While the master sensor (P3PC011) indicates the values directly on the integrated display, the slave sensor (P3PC001) takes over the supplementary measurement from the opposite side. The thickness of the material is calculated in real time from the two distance values.
A decisive advantage of this solution is its insensitivity to color changes. The sensors in the P3 series work with
In practice, this system can precisely detect thickness changes in the range of 0.05 mm – even with varying materials such as colored adhesive tapes or medical textiles. The distance between the sensors and the measurement object is around 40 mm per side, which enables a compact and stable measurement geometry.
The principle of double-sided thickness measurement is not new – similar systems are used in the automotive industry for double layer detection of sheet metal, for example. But with the P3 sensors from wenglor, this process can also be applied to sensitive, flexible materials such as medical nonwovens.
With the combination of two P3 laser distance sensors and the intelligent T-piece, wenglor offers an elegant, robust solution for continuous thickness measurement of medical nonwovens – regardless of color, structure or material type. This allows applications to reliably monitor the quality of their products and efficiently automate production processes at the same time.
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