Vacuum coatings are used in numerous high-tech industries – from automotive, optics and medical technology to consumer electronics. In addition to their functional properties, coatings also influence the visual appearance of a component or material. As colour, saturation and gloss level depend heavily on the process parameters, even the smallest deviations can lead to visible colour differences. This means that precise, reproducible colour inspection is an essential part of quality assurance.
Inline measurement under extreme process conditions
The colorSENSOR CFO series of true colour recognition sensors from Micro-Epsilon enables continuous colour measurement directly in the vacuum chamber. Specially developed CFS sensors are used for this purpose, which reliably carry out measurements at pressures down to 10⁻⁵ mbar (high vacuum) and temperatures of up to 600 °C. With a reproducibility of ΔE < 0.3 and measurement frequencies of up to 30 kHz, process parameters can be monitored and controlled in real time. This ensures a high level of stability in the coating process and significantly reduces waste.
Consistent colour quality for challenging surfaces
Vacuum coatings are applied to the surface either physically (PVD process) or chemically (CVD process). PVD and CVD coatings each have different requirements for process control and temperature management. While PVD processes are characterised by evaporation or sputtering processes, CVD processes are based on chemical reactions in the process chamber. The colorSENSOR CFO supports both technologies with reliable, process-oriented colour monitoring. The measurement data obtained helps to keep layer quality and optical properties constant across different processes and material systems.
The colorSENSOR CFO series is suitable for a wide range of industrial applications including colour sorting tasks in food and beverage processing (e.g. crown caps and labels), colour inspection of interior parts in the automotive industry, recognition of colour marks in the printing industry, quality control in packaging, cosmetics, medicine and plastic products.
The colorCONTROL CFO100 and colorCONTROL CFO250 colour sensors use XYZ colour space technology, producing high accuracy colour measurements, combined with modern interfaces such as Ethernet and user-friendly operation via buttons and indicator LEDs. A reproducibility of ∆E ≥ 0.5/∆E ≥ 0.3 enables reliable detection of even the finest of colour graduation; CFO100 has a measuring rate of up to 10 kHz and a colour memory of 256 in 6 colour groups. The CFO250 has a measuring rate of up to 20 kHz and a colour memory of 320 in 254 colour groups.
ColorSENSOR CFO100 and CFO250 are ideal for restricted areas as the fibre optic sensor head requires minimum space. A large range of sensor heads fulfill the requirements of various measurement tasks and customer-specific adaptions. They have maximum installation flexibility as the sensors can be installed inside critical areas such as vacuum, high temperatures and explosive areas and these environments have no influence on the measurement.
For more information on the colorSENSOR CFO series, please visit Compact colour sensor | Micro-Epsilon or call the Micro-Epsilon sales department on +44 (0)151 355 6070 or email info@~@micro-epsilon.co.uk