New Laser Surface Analyzer for Class A Compression Molded Products

摘要

The Advanced Laser Surface Analyzer (ALSA) is the result of continuing development of surface smoothness analysis utilizing reflected laser lines to evaluate the surface smoothness of a part or panel. With the aging of the LORIA surface analyzer system making the equipment obsolete, the need for a replacement using current technology was seen. The new surface analyzer system uses a current computer, diode laser, solid state laser line control devices, a Charge Coupled Device (CCD) for image capturing, and a MS Windows style environment for the software creating improvements in resolution, speed and ease of use. These improvements were achieved while maintaining an excellent correlation with the surface waviness numbers generated by the LORIA, the current standard for measuring long term surface waviness. The Gage Repeatability & Reliability (GR&R) and Correlation studies to validate the system were run utilizing 12 panels and 3 operators. The long term surface waviness of the panels ranged from flat black glass to structural SMC with a wide range of surface waviness in between. Orange Peel is another aspect of surface quality that can be measured by this system. These values were confirmed to correlate to a standard set of DuPont orange peel standards. The DOI value has been recalculated using the slope of the intensity curve and the width of the line to correlate to a visual image analysis procedure. The new "Windows" style software is more user friendly than before and creates a summary of the data from a series of panels.