Quality measurement for non-extrudable materials: The new Offline Tape Tester OTT100

Until now, the optical quality inspection of polymers that cannot be extruded using standard methods has posed major challenges for the industry. With the new Offline Tape Tester (OTT100), OCS presents the solution: a compact, enclosed system for the automated quality measurement of non-extrudable materials directly from small film samples.

The primary objective in developing the OTT100 was to enable precise quality measurement for plastics and speciality polymers that cannot be processed using standard extruders. The new system is based on the globally proven camera technology of our film surface analyser (FSA100V2) and carries out optical quality checks fully automatically and offline.

For the measurement, small quantities of polymer film samples (typically between 3 and 10 metres in length) are wound onto the core tubes supplied by OCS. Unwinding and quality measurement in the OTT100 then take place fully automatically.

A major advantage of the system is the extremely short film path within the unit. As a result, virtually no material is lost during feeding, and the user obtains absolutely reliable and reproducible measurement results from a sample length of just 2 metres. An integrated sequence control system ensures that film transport and the camera’s real-time analysis are perfectly synchronised and operate fully automatically.

As the entire system and the camera technology are housed within a robust cabinet, the measurement process is optimally protected from external influences such as dust, draughts or interfering ambient light. This makes the OTT100 a highly flexible and reliable solution for the rapid quality assessment of materials that are otherwise difficult to test.