Precision sensor manufacturer Micro-Epsilon UK has extended its range of Blue Laser triangulation sensors for high speed distance, displacement and position measurement. The special characteristics of the blue wavelength laser light make the sensors suitable for a wide range of high precision measurements on a variety of materials including shiny metals, highly polished surfaces, red-hot glowing metals and silicon, as well as organic materials such as food, wood and wood veneers.
Micro-Epsilon’s Blue Laser Sensors have been designed specifically for applications where red laser diode sensors do not perform well. These include measurements against shiny, highly polished metals, red-hot glowing metals and for silicon-based materials. The measuring rate of the sensor is adjustable up to 49.02kHz, enabling the sensor to perform high precision measurements of fast moving objects. As the controller is integrated into the sensor housing, the sensor is suitable for mounting in restricted spaces. The sensor weighs just 550g with dimensions of 97mm x 75mm x 30mm.
Chris Jones, Managing Director at Micro-Epsilon UK commented: “With red-hot glowing objects, a conventional red laser has a high signal interference because it emits the same or very near wavelengths of light as the red laser. This can result in the ‘dazzling’ of red laser displacement sensors. However, a blue laser works at a wavelength of 405nm, which is far from the red part of the visible spectrum. This means it is unaffected by the emitted infrared radiation, which is easy to filter, ensuring very stable signals. Similarly, when measuring on organic materials, due to its shorter wavelength, blue laser light penetrates significantly less into the surface than a red laser, resulting in higher measurement accuracy.”
Jones continues: “In particular, when it comes to measuring on shiny surfaces or highly polished metals, where red lasers tend to suffer from higher noise, the high precision optics and shorter wavelength of the optoNCDT Blue Laser sensor performs extremely well, providing much lower noise levels, typically, by a factor of two compared to red laser sensors.”
In addition to the optoNCDT 2300BL, Micro-Epsilon’s optoNCDT range also includes the optoNCDT 1700BL series of Blue Laser sensors. This series includes six sensor models with measuring ranges from 20mm up to 1,000mm. The measuring rate is adjustable up to 2.5kHz.
Completing the Micro-Epsilon family of Blue Laser sensors is the scanCONTROL BL range of 2D/3D laser profile sensors (laser line scanners) that also operate using blue laser technology rather than red. These scanners are suitable for a wide range of high precision profile and dimensional measurements on a variety of materials including shiny surfaces, red-hot glowing metals, organic materials, as well as transparent or semi-transparent materials such as plastics, glass, optical components and film/substrates.
All the controls and electronics are integrated in an extremely lightweight, compact sensor design, enabling the scanners to be installed on robot arms or on machines where there may be little space available for mounting. The scanCONTROL BL series offers a range of interfaces and flexible installation options.
