New Study Examines Gauge R&R for Thin Films
Non-Contact: 3% R&R vs Contact: 69% R&R
Wilmington, DE, April 18, 2016– A new gauge repeatability and reproducibility study comparing contacting and non-contacting gauging systems on 0.8 mil film. The results were quite dramatic and highlight what many thin film producers have already experienced firsthand.
“Advanced technologies continue to move toward miniaturization requiring thinner materials (films) to meet demanding market needs. PolymerPlus is uniquely positioned to deliver high precision nanolayer films as thin as 0.1 mil thick for optical and electronic applications. We needed a gauging solution that could handle our high precision layered films while avoiding issues associated with alternative gauging approaches including optical reflection or x-ray based techniques. We found that solution with SolveTech’s PR2000, and it helped us create market leading thin film solutions”-Mike Ponting, PolymerPlus.
SolveTech’s capacitance based gauging technology is shown to have some strong advantages for measuring thin films, and this study quantifies that impact.
“This study highlights the struggle the film extrusion industry is having measuring thin films with standard technology. We are excited about the value our technology can provide to thin film producers.”-Doug Lawrence, SolveTech, Inc.
Typical thresholds for acceptable R&R are 30%, with an R&R below 10% being a good result. When looking at thin film variability, the non-contacting gauge achieved and R&R of ~3%, while the micrometer achieved approximately ~69%. Micrometers are typically accurate to 0.05 mils, but this becomes a significant percentage of a thin film’s variability. The PR2000 is 50 times more precise, and this precision is critical to getting a good R&R result.
A profile of the sample variability is created using the PR2000 Precision Profiler. The material is run twice and the two runs are overlaid to see repeatability. (Run 1: Blue, Run 2: Red)
SolveTech will be presenting the technology at SPI’s Film and Bag Conference on May 11th through the 13th.
For a free copy of the complete study, please contact SolveTech, Inc. Thanks to Datalyzer for helping produce the study!
SolveTech, Inc. is based in Wilmington, DE USA and has been making thickness gauging solutions for over 35 years. They specialize in proprietary capacitance based non-contacting measurement systems for non-conductive materials and offer free sample testing for equipment evaluation.
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If you would like more information about this topic, please contact Rob Lawrence at 302-798-5400 or email at info@gauging.com.
