The document discusses how laser displacement sensors from Micro-Epsilon are used to measure the diameter of drums in a banding machine that wraps cable sheathing materials like Kapton or Teflon around wires. The laser sensor measures the drum diameter continuously and sends the data to a processor to calculate the required torque for the bobbin drive. The optoNCDT 1401 laser sensor is well-suited for this application as it can handle the measurement of various shiny and transparent materials on the drum from up to 200mm away despite reflections and obstructions in its field of view.

1. A162_e
Laser displacement sensors
optoNCDT1401
Laser sensors support cable banding
Cables are often sheathed with different materials because
they are exposed to many different loads. The sheathing
with different banding materials is performed in a banding
machine where optoNCDT sensors from Micro-Epsilon
are installed. The cables can be banded with Kapton, Tef-
lon, mica, polyester, copper or glass fibre yarn.
The uninsulated wire is fed into the banding machine from
one side. The banding units consist of a receiver for the
banding material which is wound on a roll. The receiver is
also called a bobbin. There is a case around the bobbin,
also called head, which takes over the guidance of the
tape. The wire runs in the centre of this unit. When the
wire is moving through the machine, the bobbin and head
are constantly rotating in order to band the wire with the
inserted material. This is possible because the head and
bobbin can rotate separately from each other and therefo-
re achieve different tensile forces and angles.
The laser sensor is mounted in the machine next to the
drum. It continuously measures the current diameter of
the drum from this position. The measurement data ob-
tained are transmitted to a winding processor which cal-
culates the desired torque of the bobbin drive from this.
The problem in this application is the different materials
ranging from shiny to transparent which can be located
on the drum. Shiny metals present a problem for many
laser sensors due to the direct reflection. The tapes used
have a thickness of about 0.1 mm and are 6 to 8 mm
wide. The optoNCDT 1401 with a measuring range of
200 mm competently performs this measurement. The la-
ser spot reflects onto the coil surface and makes a clear
statement about the diameter of the coil possible. For the
data acquisition, it must be noted that the head has many
vertical cross members for the tape guide. These stays
continuously cross the measuring range of the sensor and
must be suppressed on the software side so that only the
diameter value remains as the measurement result.
Typical requirements for the measuring system:
- non-contact optical measuring technique
- measurement on shiny metal
- measuring range of 200 mm
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