Surface Topography Sensor Ideal for Paper & Board Grades

Honeywell introduced Precision FotoSurf, the newest member of the Honeywell scanning camera measurement family for paper making. Launched at the PulPaper 2010 exhibition, Precision FotoSurf is a surface topography sensor that helps paper and board makers improve product quality while reducing waste and lowering production costs. The sensor is ideal for manufacturing all printing paper and board grades, where product surface characteristics are important, minimizing the need for manual monitoring by mill personnel. Precision FotoSurf’s camera and powerful illumination technology automatically adjusts to varying machine speeds and sheet surface characteristics to capture high-quality sheet surface images.

This automated approach helps reduce variations in web smoothness/roughness profiles which can cause a range of imperfections in paper and board products – and in turn cause printability problems. The sensor allows mill personnel to electronically monitor web surface characteristics throughout the entire production process, facilitating immediate corrective action if a product deviates from standards. This increases the yield as less paper/board is rejected, and it also increases paper makers’ customer satisfaction as they experience fewer problems with printability.

Precision FotoSurf saves paper and board makers time and money, and boosts their competitiveness. The solution maximizes productivity by reducing the need for laboratory analysis of smoothness/roughness profiles, minimizes time needed for corrective action when flaws are detected, and ultimately results in higher-quality products with less waste.

Supporting speeds up to 2,000 m/min., Precision FotoSurf uses a built-in image control unit to manage both camera and illumination parameters. In addition to providing numeric values for surface smoothness and roughness, the sensor displays images of the product surface to determine the root cause of the problem so that corrective action can be taken.

Features & Benefits

The sensor measures the following paper surface characteristics:

• PPS Smoothness
• Bendtsen Roughness
• Sensor optics and illumination automatically adjust to different machine speeds for the best image quality.
• Standard inboard sensor design allows installation in any free slot inside the sensor carriage.
• There are no moving parts in the sensor, which minimizes maintenance needs and ensures a long lifetime.
• Trending and profiling capability is available for all measured variables.
• The latest captured images are available for operator observation.
• Up to four images per scan can be transferred to Da Vinci from predefined profile locations for operator observation.
• Image Gallery display shows 8 images each representing reel average surface characteristic. These are displayed around grade dependent reference image.
• In single point operation, images are transferred periodically at a fixed rate for operator observation.
• Sample feature allows the measurement of sheet samples. This information can be used for analysis of returned product, process diagnostics, etc.

Honeywell
www.honeywell.com