For sensitive, soft or smooth surfaces, customers in factory or logistics automation require non-contact measurement options for the length, speed and position of continuous webs and blanks in order to avoid damage or contamination. According to the manufacturer, the non-contact 'Speetec' closes the gap between tactile, indirect measuring encoder solutions and more expensive laser velocimeters. It can measure without slippage, without measuring standards or markings and without wearing out tactile measuring elements. This means that materials that affect tactile measuring solutions such as measuring wheel encoders through abrasion, adhesion or wear and impair their function and service life can be measured reliably. According to Sick, the return on investment (ROI) for 'Speetec' is less than one year.

Speeds up to 10 m/s

Speetec' is equipped with class 1 lasers. The non-contact measurement is carried out using the laser Doppler method at speeds of up to 10 m/s. Two transmitters emit laser light - once with the direction of travel of the material, once against it. As both transmitters work independently of each other, possible assembly tolerances and surface fluctuations can be compensated, for example in the case of wavy surfaces. The accuracy in relation to an object length of 1 m is 1 mm with a resolution of 4 µm. In this case, the repeat accuracy is specified at 0.5 mm. Measured values are output via TTL or HTL interfaces, which are common in the encoder world.

Speetec' can be used to measure length, speed and position in linear movements, even with alternating forward and backward movements. As only 3 ms elapse between the start of the movement and the measured value output with the sensor, it is also possible to measure accelerations in applications with high movement dynamics. According to the manufacturer, comparable systems are significantly slower here. The speed sensor also creates new resource-saving solutions for measuring the speed of short materials: While velocimeters often require several meters of material lead time, 'Speetec' can reliably measure individual parts the size of a business card.