Novel Solution for Noncontact Thickness Measurement of PE, PP Containers

Now there’s a technology that provides the benefits of noncontact, infrared-based thickness measurement, which PET bottle makers have used for years, to molders of HDPE, PP and similar containers that are highly colored and have limited transparency. Even non-colored HDPE is generally translucent, allowing some IR to pass through, but it lacks well-defined spectral signatures for standard IR analysis.

 The new solution is a novel “Integrated Method for Thickness Measurement” from Agr International. This patent-pending method incorporates a proprietary programmable spectrometer to analyze the signal level of multiple absorption bands in the near-IR and short-IR bandwidths. Using this new technique, highly colored bottles with IR transmissivity as low as 5% can now be measured for thickness, according to Agr.

The new Integrated Method is now standard on Agr’s Gawis 4D automated measurement system that has been used by PET bottle producers. The device is now well suited to testing labs that process a wide variety of PET and non-PET containers. With the trend toward lightweighting of plastic containers, ability to measure material thickness distribution on non-PET bottles with high accuracy and repeatability is increasingly important.