OPTIPACT: 2D- motion detection

The production of paper tubes or other round matarials is normally based on a two dimensional movement of the raw material. Besides the translation (the motion feed) the material turns round its own axes. In such cases a direct measurement of the length (e.g. for the synchronisation of a cutting process) with tactile methods is complicated: A measuring wheel with an incremental encoder can not be mounted. Optical devices like Laser Doppler sensors are very expensive and can not detect 2D movement. INTACTON has developed a measuring device that is capable for such kinds of measurement: OPTIPACT illuminates the object to be measured with red LED and determines distance travelled by comparison of of a sequence of images. OPTIPACT comes with a 900 pixel camera and hence is able to detect translative as well as rotative movement at the same time. The sensor is equipped with an incremental interface for both measuring directions so that the two axes can be measured independently. The sensor just has to be mounted in a certain distance to the object to be measured - so the integration is very easy.