High speed laser line sensor for shiny, difficult-to-measure surfaces

14 May 2013

Micro-Epsilon has introduced a new non-contact laser line displacement sensor, which is suited to the high speed measurement of shiny metallic and rapidly changing, rough or other difficult-to-measure surfaces.

Rather than using a spherical or point-shaped laser spot, the optoNCDT 2300LL sensor uses a laser line and software algorithms to filter out any interference caused by sub-micrometre surface defects on shiny objects, such as polished metals, mild steel and rubber.

The sensor uses a special cylindrical lens that widens the laser spot to an oval shape. Measurements using this laser line averaged using software algorithms, so that any interference caused by surface roughness, defects, indentations or holes down in the sub-micrometre range are dramatically reduced.

An ideal application for the sensor is on structured surfaces, where the distance to the surface and not the structure itself need to be measured. The distance measurement should not be influenced by the structure of the surface, but instead should provide a constant, reliable value of the distance from the target.

The optoNCDT 2300LL is a self-contained laser displacement sensor that requires no separate controller and it can achieve high resolution and high measuring speeds without any averaging.

The optoNCDT 2300LL uses Micro-Epsilon’s new Advanced Real Time Surface Compensation (A-RTSC) technology, which enables the sensor to automatically compensate in real time for difficult-to-measure surfaces.

The sensor also offers a range of interfaces including Ethernet, EtherCAT, RS422 and analogue output via the CSP2008 controller.