Industrial Automation Magazine India

Non-Contact Measurement of Speed and Length

Published on : Monday 07-12-2020

The SPEETEC is a sensor solution for moving materials in a linear path and special processes.

With the SPEETEC®, SICK has expanded its product range for speed and length measurement of objects moving in a linear path to include technology that measures directly on the material surface. The non-contact sensor is able to measure a wide range of web and continuous materials, as well as blanks with an accuracy of just 4 μm.
 
From a market perspective, the speed sensor closes the gap between tactile, indirect-measuring encoder solutions and laser velocimeters, which are often expensive to purchase and require considerable effort to integrate and operate.
 
Slip-resistant, without measuring elements, without damaging sensitive surfaces and without wear and tear on tactile sensor elements – the SPEETEC® from SICK is an innovative, non-contact sensor for speed and length measurement of objects moving in a linear path.
 
The SPEETEC® offers a new way to measure without slip, measuring elements or marking, and wear and tear on tactile sensor elements. Materials that cause wear, adhesion, or abrasion damage to measurement solutions such as measuring wheel encoders, impairing their function, can be measured by the SPEETEC® with a high degree of process reliability and availability.
 
The non-contact measurement is performed with a laser Doppler process at speeds of up to 10 m/s. Two transmitters emit laser light – one in the direction of movement of the material, the other in the opposite direction. Since the transmitters work independently, possible mounting tolerances and surface fluctuations (i.e., with wavy surfaces) can be balanced out.
 
All measurements are done with high precision. At a resolution of four micrometres, the accuracy relating to the object length of a metre is one millimetre. The repeatability in this case is specified with a half a millimetre. Measured values are output via the TTL or HTL interfaces common in the encoder world, making integration easy.

SICK India, Mumbai. Tel: +91-22-61198939. Email: [email protected]