Hammer IMS creates clean non-nuclear measurement systems for paper, plastic, foam, glass, mineral wool production using their patented millimeter wave technology. Download the presentation to see the Speakers Notes of click on the notes tab.
5. ▪ Can we sense or
make pictures with
millimeter waves?
– Are we able to see
more than just using
an optical camera?
– Maybe we can see
through materials?
Millimeter waves for sensors
This document briefly introduces the reader to millimeter wave technology for sensing and measuring and the products of Hammer-IMS. Hammer-IMS provides solutions for inline contactless thickness and weight measurement.
When people hear about waves, they tend to draw a sinus line with alternating highs and lows . Millimeter waves are, to that extend, not different from other waves. Unlike the waves of the sea and the acoustic waves that you produce while you speak, millimeter waves do not use a medium (water for the sea’s waves, air for speech-waves). Millimeter waves are electromagnetic waves. They are comparible to the ones that are used in FM-radio, WiFi, GPS, cel phone communication. Millimeter waves differ from the typical waves that are used in our every-day communications. Millimeter waves have much more higher frequencies. Let’s call them, active waves. Thinking about the sinus line again: the highs and the lows succeed each other much tightly. Scientifically we say: millimeter waves have a very short wavelength. Alternatively, one can say: millimeter waves use high frequencies. To give you some numbers: millimeter waves come at frequencies ten to hundred times higher than the ones of your cell phone. Frequencies are between 30 GHz and 300 MHz. And … guess what: their wavelengths are only a few millimeters…
Is Hammer-IMS the only party providing commercial solutions based on millimeter waves? No. Millimeter waves are used nowadays in a few applications for communication purposes. The left-hand-side of the graphic shows a point-to-point link for connecting the cellular network’s communication poles to each other, servicing multiple phone calls at the same time and providing a high-bandwidth connection between the poles. The application’s name: “cell phone’s backhaul connection”. The right-hand-side of the graphic shows future applications for indoor entertainment. Millimeter waves enable high-density (HD) movies to be streamed from your cell phone, tablet, … to your TV-set.
Millimeter waves have not been explored exhaustively in commercial sensor applications yet. Popular examples of millimeter wave sensing lie in the field of airport safety. Millimeter waves tend to penetrate fog, dust and sub-millimeter-size particles much better than optical waves do. This makes them particularly valuable in outdoor imaging and radar applications. The technique can be applied in aircraft while landing to create a clear visual on the runway even during bad weather conditions. This example concludes that millimeter waves can see through certain materials. Another popular example in the field of airport safety is the full-body scan. Concealed weapons can be detected by means of millimeter waves. These full-body scans are now used in airports as a passenger safety check.
High-speed waves, or, thinking of the analogy with the waves in the see: a quick see. Mare + Velox (latin: see + quick) yields: Marveloc, our product series.
Hammer-IMS believes that millimeter waves will be the next-generation’s sensor technology to contribute to the recent phenomenon in industrial automation called “Industry 4.0”. The buzz-word Industry 4.0 is about smarter and wirelessly-connected systems in industry, shifting from highly-centralized industrial installations to a smart network, improving quality and production efficiency.
Our Marveloc 602 uses a sensor concept based on two antennas, or properly named: one sensor-head pair. One antenna transmits millimeter waves onto the material of which the thickness or basis-weight needs to be measured. The other antenna captures the millimeter waves. The presence of the material causes the waves to be slowed down. The concept is straightforward: the more material, the slower the waves. Accurately timing the trajectory of the millimeter waves enables to extract the thickness or the basis-weight of the material. Accurate timing is indispensable, and key in the Marveloc 602 measurement systems.
Marveloc 602 stands for high-speed, contactless measurement of thicknesses and weigeht in industrial production. Thinking of the ‘landing-radar’ as explained in one of the first graphics, millimeter waves are robust when facing dust, fog, smoke, … Moreover, the antennas are pure meta, meaning they can resist high temperatures or other harsh industrial environments. Millimeter waves are virtually insensitive to color variations, opacity variations or variations of surface roughness/shininess of materials. Finally, millimeter waves can operate at much more higher stand-off distances than conventional sensor technologies, making them particularly suitable when contact with the material is to be avoided at all cost.
The Marveloc 602’s basis unit consists of two antennas, one processing unit and one industrial PC. The antennas are connected by means of either a cable or a waveguide to the processing unit. The heart of the innovation of the Marveloc 602 lies in this processing unit.
A visual on a typical set-up using the Marveloc 602.
Hammer-IMS is convinced that many markets contribute from its technology. Therefore, Hammer-IMS has subdivided the Marveloc 602 product family in a range of sub-categories, all four of them optimized for a specific market or measurement task. The names of the sub-categories are found in wildlife. Each sub-category corresponds to a different combination of responsivity (=quick reaction) and precision.
The graphic shows how all four sub-categories differ in terms of responsivity and precision.
The technology of Hammer-IMS has been tested on many different materials. The list as shown here is non-exhaustive. All these materials have something in common: they are all non-conducting for electrical current. Currently, Hammer-IMS’s Marveloc 602 technology does not support metals or semiconducting materials. Note that polymers and plastics are multiple-present in this table. The plastics industry is therefore an interesting market for Hammer-IMS.
Hammer-IMS provides inline installations for end-users. The first sketches of a single-headed solution are shown here. Our mechanical technology to enable inline installations is called Hammer-IMS’ CURTAIN technology. The CURTAIN technology both has fixed (F) solutions, but also traveling/moving (T) solutions.
Hammer-IMS’s CURTAIN technology supports hooking-up more than one sensor-head pair. A multi-head extension module (MHEM-8) and support for longer wire lengths (DIST-EXTENSION) are valuable add-ons for multi-head support.
Hammer-IMS Connectivity 2.0 is your friend while interfacing the Marveloc 602 or the Marveloc 602 – CURTAIN combination. It is available as a graphical end-user software, but can also be distributed as a shared library on request to enable integrators to wrap their own code or application software around Hammer-IMS Connectivity’s functional parts.
A visual on a single-headed inline setup for plastic extrusion.