The film quality testing system FT-5 from OCS was designed for reliable, automated quality control of transparent materials such as polymer films, glass etc. The system detects impurities, holes and other inhomogeneities, e.g. it distinguishes between gels and black specks, in 10 adjustable class sizes. The lowest recognition limit is at a maximum elongation of 20 µm .

FT-5 consists of a high-speed matrix camera and a stroboscope lighting unit, which are protected by aluminium housings. They are connected to a high-performance image-processing computer, which is in a 19"-4HE housing. The system can easily be integrated into production processes for production lines with high-speed strips (up to 300m/min) without the resolution being influenced and for materials of several metres in width. Furthermore, the FT-5 is highly suitable for laboratory use, research and development (R&D) in the plastics industry.

The material is inspected by the use of transmitted light. The matrix camera and the stroboscope lighting unit are installed opposite one another. At short intervals, shots of the moving film are taken by the camera, which are then processed by the computer.

Very important features of this system are the shape factor and the gel or contamination distribution. The irregularities are subdivided into certain class sizes and then assigned to the respective section of the strips. The frequency of recurring defects having been recognised helps to identify possible contamination in the extruder. The images of potential defects can be defined in advance, so that once these defects occur, they will be recognised, registered and saved for further analysis.

The system's software is menu-driven, user-friendly and complies to a large degree to the SAA-standard. After each measurement a test certificate can be printed out while all data is being stored simultaneously, including the time, date and length of the inspected material. This allows later evaluation of all data.