While cameras capture product information based primarily on material reflectance, laser technology primarily interrogates a material’s property (or structure). This makes lasers ideal for detecting a wide range of foreign materials and some product defects.
Compared to other light sources such as HID (high intensity discharge) lights, flourescent lights, and LEDs (light emitting diodes), lasers produce a far greater power density that can cause the laser light to actually penetrate the product, depending on the material properties.
The key to identifying differences in material properties lies in how the laser light “behaves” within the object. Based on an object’s color and structure, the laser beam will be reflected at different levels of intensity and will also scatter, or transmit, different amounts. One, or perhaps a combination of these behaviors, allows precise characterization of your product and associated defects and foreign materials.
To maximize the sorter’s capability to identify and reject the widest range of defects and foreign materials, Key combines Raptor Laser Sorting Technology with other light sources and color cameras in one optical inspection system.