Article: Flexible Packaging
Tactilus® measures pressure distribution across a heat seal
Sensor Products Inc. offers its Tactilus® line of dynamic electronic pressure-mapping systems to the packaging industry. This innovative device allows measurement of contact pressures between any two mating surfaces. The application includes quality control monitoring of uniform pressures across sealing dies in heat seal and sealing machinery. The Tactilus® system reveals critical pressure irregularities that can compromise package integrity.
The technology is a matrix-based tactile surface sensor that works by the principle of piezoresistance. Each Tactilus® sensor is carefully assembled to exacting tolerances and individually calibrated and serialized.
The Tactilus® system comes equipped with all components necessary to collect data for comprehensive analysis, including sensor element, electronics controller and Windows-based Tactilus® software. The modular architecture of Tactilus® means it is portable and easily modified through the installation of Tactilus® Free Form individual sensing points. The software enables direct pressure readings without the need for calibration and pressure-versus-time tracking, which allows not only a reading of pressure but actual real-time analysis of two contacting surfaces.
The Tactilus® sensor system is robust enough to endure thousands of uses with consistent repeatability, and is highly resistant to electromagnetic noise, temperature, and humidity fluctuations. Running on a standard laptop computer, the software allows users to customize data display and manipulate it in a variety of formats.