Table of Contents System Description and Usage ........................7 Product Safety ............................7 System Specifications .........................8 Performance Specifications ........................8 Environmental Specifications-Customer must provide ................8 Installation and Site Requirements ......................9 Utilities ..............................9 Electronics Mounting and Conduit Work ....................10 Probe Installation ............................
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New Group ............................21 Database Group ..........................21 Delete Group ............................22 Screen Control (Recipe Module Only) ....................22 Filter Region ............................22 Selection Region ..........................22 View Detail Region ..........................23 Module Navigation Region ........................23 Recipes ..............................24 Recipe Assistant ............................
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Getting Started ............................45 Logging Inline Graph ........................... 45 Loading Files ............................45 Controls ............................... 46 Calculated Thickness ........................... 47 Normalized Data ..........................47 Raw Data ............................. 48 Peak Data ............................48 PA Settings ............................52 Layer Settings ............................53 Specification &...
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General Maintenance Checklist ......................62 Calibration ............................... 62 P a g e R e v 5 - 1 9...
System Description and Usage The SpecMetrix® In-line coating thickness measurement system is designed to measure the thickness or coat weight of wet or dry coatings applied to flat sheets, continuous coil or plastic film and coatings on many other substrates. Each system is comprised of one or multiple probes connected by fiber optic cable to a controls enclosure mounted near the coating line so that the supplied probe cables can terminate in the controls enclosure.
• Electrical Warning A professional licensed electrician should perform all electrical work/installation. • Installation Requirements 1. SpecMetrix traversing systems must be installed inside a cage. 2. Indoor and dry location use only 3. Environmental temperature: 0-50C (32-122F) 4. System mounting elevation: Max 2m (6.5ft) 5.
SpecMetrix® Display Unit Requirements SpecMetrix® will provide a display unit with at least the minimal requirements installed which are Windows 7 64-bit (SP 1), 16GB Memory, and SSD storage. Installation and Site Requirements Utilities The SpecMetrix® In-line system requires a dedicated 120VAC/240VAC AC 15-amp grounded mains supply adjacent to the Display Unit and the In-line Control Unit.
Probe Installation Typically, Sensory Analytics technicians will install the probes ¾” – 1 ¼” over the web at a 90° angle using a Hex bar and collar clamps. If a plant has constructed their own mechanism for probe mounting, the mechanism must allow for probe height adjustment from ½...
Laser Detection Setup Make sure laser is set to factory settings. (Hold the down button and press the up button 5 times you should see an “RST” on the LCD of the sensor, press up to get a “no” on the LCD, then press “up”...
System Start-Up Procedure Turn the Disconnect on the main electrical cabinet to the “ON” position. The green light on the front should illuminate. Wait a minute for the background services to start. Then press the SA service red tile. The screen will gray out while starting the service.
System Shut down Procedure Select the green “SA Service” Tile. Then Select “Yes” to properly shut down the SA service. Select the red “Windows Shutdown” tile. This will start the computer shutdown process. Then select “Yes” to shut down the computer. Turn the Disconnect to the “OFF”...
Signing On Double-click the Sensory Menu icon on the desktop. Full SA Menu window will open as seen in the image below. The arrangement of your tiles may vary slightly. Full SA Menu window will open as seen in the image below.
SA UI Configuration SA UI Configuration – Used to adjust graph settings, minimum and maximum measurement ranges, target specifications. They are also used to change aspects of the In-line system such as the color of the High/Low measurement on the display, or to apply alternative smoothing to a graph, and the option to set your graphs to be tabbed or side-by-side in multi-line systems.
Inline Graphing options for CrossWeb Graph, Die Graph, DownWeb Graph, and Lane Graph Cross web Position Update Rate [1-10] Lower value increases the number of Positions Line updates but can cause screen unresponsiveness and lag. Decimal Places The number of decimal places measurement readings will display. Downweb Graph Count Scrolling size: the graph number of graph points displayed for each probe on the down web graph.
Smoothing Level A higher level will show more stable results but will take longer to show changes in the coating. Multi-line Graph Display How multiple graphs are drawn in relation to one another. Options include None, SidebySide, Tabbed, and Combination*. * Combination Type exclusively for Traversing systems. Posted Readings Averaged Count of reading cycles to use for calculating the held average.
Probe Colors Change the color of the Probe Readings where by default high values are Blue and low values are Red. Operators can click on value field to pick any color desired from the pull-down menu. SA ACS This portion of the config file does not pertain to the Traversing System SA Blown Film Settings This portion of the config file does not pertain to the Traversing System SA Inline (Fixed Differential)
(Left/Right) Web Percentage Equidistant length for each lane to divide web starting at ‘detected’ edge. All webs may not divide evenly, and the last LANE may only be a portion of the distance. Constant Lane Count All webs will be divided equidistantly into this specific number of lanes. Unless the number of divisions is less than 1-inch (25mm) widths.
SpecMetrix® SA Data Manager SA Data Manager – Add and edit recipes, User security, Lane and Plant configurations. Function access will vary depending on User Access Level. The SA Data Manager interface allows you to Add/Edit recipes, setup lane definitions for traversing systems, User security, and the Plant Database.
General Information The layout of the data manager is broken down into five main sections. Command Bar, Filter, Selection, Detail, and Navigation. Command Bar The Command Bar is itself divided into subgroups, and except for the “Data Services” section, will change depending on which module is being viewed by the user.
Delete Group The Delete button will remove the selected item from the “Active” item list and will no longer display that item in the selection options. For Recipes and Lanes, it is recommended that these items are archived in the database and not permanently deleted. Screen Control (Recipe Module Only) The screen control has a toggle: “Show Filter”...
View Detail Region The details of an item are visible in the larger section on the middle-right side. This is a Read-Only section and does not allow changes directly in this screen. In the Recipe Detail View, if a recipe has multiple layers defined, a user can review the layers by selecting the layer within the drop-down.
Recipes The most important part of the SpecMetrix® System is the coating recipe. This contains all the critical information about the coating/layer/film that is being measured. The User Interface allows all the information about the recipe and its layer(s) to be viewed on a single screen. There is a lot of information on this screen, and while all of it may be relevant to your needs, not all of it is “required.”...
Recipe Assistant Recipe Assistant is a user-friendly way to create a new coating recipe for SpecMetrix® Systems. Having a good recipe for a given coating is critical and it is a one-time setup that takes a few minutes for a given coating. By answering a few questions, the Recipe Assistant will generate a very good baseline recipe which will be sufficient for most coating combinations.
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There are only four screens with entry questions. The first screen is gathering some general information such as: • Recipe Name – This is the Recipe ID that is used for recipe selection and is a unique identifier • Units of Measure – (Default: Microns) this represents the desired output units. The units of measure could be thickness units such as microns or mils or coat weight units such as mg/in mg/4in , g/m...
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The optical properties page is asking about the opacity (color) of the coating, and if the coating is clear/gold and there is a base coat underneath, what is the opacity (color) of the base coat. Coating Color – There are five choices {Clear, Gold, White, Pigmented, Metallic}. Choose the •...
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Microns to weight conversion often requires coating specific properties which are generally found in the Coating Specification Sheet from the coating supplier. The most difficult piece of information that is typically missing from the Coating Specification Sheet is the [% of Solids by Volume]. A simple assistant screen is provided to help the estimation of the %solids by volume field.
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To provide continuity and accurate graphical representation we have moved the specification editors into its own editor. This editor functions the same whether you see it embedded in the Recipe Assistant, or as a popup window for Recipe Editor. Additionally, the Range has been split out from a single +/- value to a (-) range and a (+) range. The range allowance is dependent on the target spec.
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The Recipe Wizard is now complete. The user can navigate [back] to review the questions or click on [Finish] to finalize and generate the new recipe. Once the user clicks on [Finish], the Recipe Assistant will close, and the Editor will now be populated with the data based on what you put into the Assistant.
Lanes ( SpecMetrix ® Traversing Only) As with the Recipe editor, there is a filter section. However, the filter only separates out based on plants as of the current release. The Selection grid functions the same as the Recipe module. The Detail view shows the pertinent information regarding the currently selected Lane Definition.
Adding / Editing a Lane Definition Naming a lane is entirely up to how the ‘user’ (or the plant) decides to name the identifying Lane Definition. This is what will be displayed within the drop-down selection of the In-line system during production.
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Custom Widths? – Checking this box will allow the user to enter variable widths for their desired • lanes. The SUM of all the widths must exactly equal the full web width field. When editing values directly in the grid, the final value will change its value to balance the sum of the equation (add all values, except for last, and subtract from provided Web Width to give the new value of the last [LaneWidth]).
Users User security is (or at least should be) at the forefront of thinking in any plant. Ensuring that the right people have access to make changes, or not, will ensure that the data remains secure and accurate. User Permission levels and their privileges •...
For almost all systems installed in the field the recipe database will reside locally on the SpecMetrix® unit. This is also the recommendation of Sensory Analytics. When this is the case, then there is only one plant, and it will be the ‘Corporate’ plant. * The corporate plant cannot be deactivated.
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SpecMetrix® unit that connects to a remote Data Manager host. Sensory Analytics cannot manage or make changes to a plants network at any time.
SpecMetrix ® SA Inline Measurements SA Inline Measurement Manager – This interface allows you to monitor measurements taken from your probes. The interface is largely dependent on settings are chosen in the User Configuration tool. Main User Interface Click the “In-line” Tile; this will open the Inline UI. Verify the correct Line by selecting the appropriate tab (for multi-line systems only).
6. Stop: Stops measuring of the active probe on that line/tab. 7. Stop All: Stops measuring on all active lines. Note: During measuring, users can click on the probe name to isolate that probe. Adjustable Target Set In the image below, the […] (ellipsis) button to the right of the Recipe gets enabled when the selected recipe qualifies as...
The image to the left shows how measurement output is displayed (in real-time) when the probe, or probes, in this case, are inactive. The image to the right takes a closer look and shows how measurement output is displayed (in real-time) when each probe is active.
User Interface Tabs Thickness Graph With each reading displayed in the probe reading region, this graph is a plot of thickness measured as a process. A reading is produced once every probe cycle (Default = 1.0 second). Thickness Graph Tab Average Reads Displays the Moving Average, the average value for measurements taken over a certain period or...
Thickness Data Thickness Data provides reading statistics. Traversing systems will yield statistics per lane. Non- traversing systems will yield statistics per probe cycle. 1. Min – The value of the lowest measurement taken during the probe cycle. 2. Max - The value of the highest measurement taken during the probe cycle. 3.
Traversing Cross Web This is a near real-time plot which graphs each independent reading based on a running smoothing average. The graph is updated once per probe cycle with all independent location evaluations. The cross-web points are plotted individually based on location and are not removed based on probe cycle evaluation.
Lane Graph If there is a [Lane Definition] provided, then this will represent the material from edge to edge (as discovered by reflectance for SA Traversing or Photo Eyes used by PLC Traversing). If no [Lane Definition] is provided, then this will represent the total width defined across the machine, and the material evaluation will be a subset of the default number of lanes.
the web. If the probe is stopped in a lane, the data will be recorded as a single value regardless of how long the probe is motionless. Light Tower With an SA Traversing System, a light tower is provided to give users a quick visual reference to their measurement range.
To review a run that is older than a week, you must export the debug to its zip file ® before the data being purged. Because of database size restrictions, Sensory Analytics cannot guarantee data to remain in the system for longer than seven days.
2. Select the option of “From File” if you are working with an exported debug zip file a. Click on the ellipse “…” button to open the file selection window b. Navigate to the folder and select the file to analyze 3.
Probe Drop-down menu: Selector used to choose between probes. Layer Drop-down menu: Selector used to choose between layers. If the run selected was defined as a 2-layer recipe at the time of the run, then you can select, analyze and modify each layer individually. SA Analysis Tool can analyze up to 2 layers at the same time with the SpecMetrix Measurement System.
Raw Data The y-axis shows the reflectance energy entering the probe at the respective integration time. The x- axis is the wavelength of light in nanometers (nm). The checkboxes at the bottom are used to add/remove to each of their respective readings.
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PA Thickness (µm): A secondary validation calculation to support the thickness calculation. PA Conv. Thickness: The PA thickness value converted into another unit of thickness or weight. Conversion Rate: From measurement thickness in microns, converted to desired units of measure Actual Peak Variance: Ratio of Thickness and PA Thickness estimate Subtractive Amount: Only shows information if a Differential configuration is being used.
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Manual Est. Allows users to adjust the following values: Beginning/Ending Wavelength/Energy: The wavelength/Energy range is the range of light spectrum that is being measured to produce a reading. SpecMetrix® software currently measures in 3 different spectral ranges: • Visible spectrum (VIS) which ranges from 400 nm – 1000 nm (can also detect in the 200-400nm wavelength region if a UV light source is included).
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Options Controls the visibility of the Normalized graph lines: Checking or unchecking the line display boxes will hide or unhide the respective lines in the Wave Graph. Normalized line – (Black line) the normalized spectral array for the wavelength range. •...
PA Settings Peak Analysis values can be changed as follows: Peak Tolerance: This is the amount of acceptable variation in percentage between the final estimated thickness by the peak analysis algorithm and the thickness displayed by the software. If a value of 0.2 is used in this field, then a 20% variation is acceptable between the calculated thickness by the software and the estimated thickness by the peak analysis.
Layer Settings Waveform Type: Standard is typically used and allows the peak analysis to track the major waveform pattern. Amplitude Modulated may be used in certain instances if there is a thin layer being measured with interference from a film substrate also present. Amplitude Modulated will attempt to track “over”...
Specification & Graph Setup To provide continuity and accurate graphical representation we have moved the specification editors into its own editor. This editor functions the same whether you see it embedded in the Recipe Assistant or as a popup window for Recipe Editor. Additionally, the Range has been split out from a single +/- value to a (-) range and a (+) range.
Overview Grid Once a recipe has been changed, you can see the impact across all the analysis readings to determine if the change has improved the reading success or decreased the success rate. You can see the reading success rate for the original result set as it was performed during the measurement run, and next to it you can see the new results (New Status).
You will enter all the weights, one at a time, in the text field next to the symbol. You will click the symbol to add a Gravimetric sample reading. The system will insert the value in the list box above and then average the values and calculate a new conversion factor based on the series.
Custom Smoothing Attempts to “smooth” the analysis curve as the value increases to fit the original interference curve better. Momentum This is the number of adjacent points that are required to show a change in the peak direction. The minimum number of points to make a line is 2. Waveform Type Standard is typically used and allows the peak analysis to track the major waveform pattern.
123 456 789 123456 For Sensory Analytics to provide the remote support, you will need to provide the 9-digit Team Viewer ID as well as the Team Viewer password. There is no way to access your SpecMetrix® unit without the plant providing this information.
Other SA Menu Buttons The image to below will allow users to minimize the SA Menu window and return to the Windows desktop environment without shutting down the SA software. Windows Shutdown – used to close the SpecMetrix® Server in a ‘Friendly’ way (so that all hardware is properly closed), you must first Stop the In-line service before shutting down or restarting Windows.
System Maintenance Suggested Cleaning Interval The cleaning intervals are based upon general factory condition. If the box is placed in areas where significant dust or particle density is high, or should you notice performance or temperature issues and you may need to shorten the suggested interval cleaning cycle. Environment Maintenance Interval * Clean Room / Office / Lab environment...
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Optical switch with light sources Halogen Lamp To remove a lamp: 1. Use a 3/32 Allen key to loosen the set screw identified with the red arrows. 2. After pulling the lamp out of the aluminum housing, it should look like Figure 63 Above. 3.
A NIST traceable measurement coupon is provided to check the gauge’s accuracy. A thickness verifier unit (TVU) can be supplied by Sensory Analytics and can be used to verify the calibration of the optics inside the unit.
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1. Take a Thickness Verification Unit (TVU) (See Image at Right) and place the probe head inside the TVU until it stops. Insert a battery into the location as shown in the image – this will turn on a rotating piece of film inside the TVU.
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