Glass thickness measurement made easy

Although the manufacturer was already using an ultrasonic method it was not reliable enough and was too intrusive and slow for the reuired lines speeds.



By fitting the CHRocodile M4 thickness measuring instrument the system was capable of non-contact inspection of up to 350 non-round containers per minute for thickness, shape, roundness and quality and could do so in four positions with  independant optical probes.



The measuring system is able to read, and reliably inspect, all hollow containers; bottles can be various shapes and coluours and may have steeply sloping surfaces or angled sides.



Practically all round or non-round individually formed products can be measured and inspection can cover all areas of the product. Additionall, unlike some optical probing techniques, varying the stand-off distance of the optical probe or the colour of the components being inspected will have no effect on the accuracy of the measurements.



The temperature of the glass or the shimmering effects due to superheated air from ovens has no affect on the measurement accuracy. The CHRocodile M4captures the data just as reliably at the cold end of hollow glass production as inline at the hot end of the production cycle.The sensor is able to report any quality defects detected to the process control syste via RS232 and/or RS422 interfaces. This can be achieved without the need to take specimens offline during production.



CHRocodile sensors can easily be integrated into existing plants from all manufacturers, have been calibrated in the factory and are designed for years of maintenance-free operation. A comprehensive software package can be supplied for the automatic analysis of measured values based on the experience gained in several hundred installations of the CHRocodile series of sensors. The sensors full command set and DLLs are available for use by plant designers so that the CHRocodile M4 in its 19-inch rack can easily be incorporated into existing installations.



In summary the CHRocodile M4 non-contact measuring system offers the following benfits for glass production:



 - monitoring of glass thickness and roundness

 - measurement of round and non-round shaped items

 - measurement of clear and coloured glass containers

 - collects data at 4000 measurments/second

 - operates at both the hot and cold ends of hollow glass production

 - rapidly detects and prevents faulty glass containers

 - simple adaption due to modular design for up to four measuring sensors

 - easily integrated into the production process (plug & play)

 - highly precise, accurate, fast and robust

 - less system downtime, less waste and higher profits