Micron-level dimensions measured at production speed
Laser measurement systems gauge dimensions without touching the part: height, thickness, profile, runout, and position captured at production speed. They remove the bottleneck of offline gauging — the CMM queue, the sampled measurements, the out-of-tolerance parts discovered a shift after they were made.
Willowark selects the sensing principle to match your surface and tolerance, not a favorite vendor. Laser triangulation covers most diffuse surfaces at micron-to-tens-of-micron precision; confocal chromatic sensors handle mirrors, glass, and transparent films; time-of-flight covers long standoff at looser tolerances. Then we engineer the mounting, motion, and data path that make the datasheet number real on your line.
Vision & Advanced SensingHow the work gets done
The same way every time: scope, build, hand over.
A triangulation sensor projects a laser point or line onto the part and images it from a known angle, converting spot position to distance. 2D laser profilometers extend this to full cross-sections, and syncing profile capture to an encoder builds a complete 3D map of a moving part. Dual opposed heads measure thickness independent of part flutter. The hard engineering is in the details: exposure control across changing reflectivity, speckle on machined surfaces, occlusion angles, mounting stiffness, and thermal growth of the fixture itself — any of which can quietly eat your measurement budget.
We prove performance the way a gauge is proven. Repeatability studies on real parts, correlation runs against your CMM or certified standards, and documented measurement uncertainty come before the system goes live. In production, measurements feed SPC with alarm limits, and where it pays off, the data closes the loop — trending thickness drift can trim the process before parts go out of tolerance.
Feasibility means putting your actual parts under candidate sensors, not reading datasheets. Surface finish, color, and geometry change how a laser line returns, so we measure a small set of parts spanning your real variation — different lots, finishes, and the worst-case parts your quality team keeps in a drawer — and report the repeatability we observed alongside the sensor's quoted figure. That trial also surfaces occlusion: features hidden from the sensor's viewing angle that need a second head or a different mounting. A short feasibility study typically resolves the sensing principle, the standoff, and the mounting concept before anything is purchased.
A laser gauge drifts for boring reasons: the fixture warms up, a sensor window collects mist, a mount relaxes. We design the calibration routine around those realities — a certified master part or step gauge measured at shift start, with the software comparing against stored reference values and blocking measurements if the check fails. Temperature is logged with every result so thermal effects can be separated from real part changes. Handover includes the calibration procedure written for a technician, the master artifact with its certificate, and the software source, so your team can maintain the gauge and prove it is still a gauge.
Scope it in writing
What we agree before work starts
- Sensing principle selection with feasibility measurements on your parts
- Sensor, mounting, and motion or encoder synchronization design
Build with checkpoints
Working results, not slide decks
- Measurement software with per-part results and SPC output
- Correlation study against CMM or certified reference standards
Hand over something you own
Documentation, source, and training
- Documented repeatability and measurement uncertainty
- Commissioning, calibration procedure, and maintenance documentation
Sound familiar?
Where laser measurement systems earns its keep.
Continuous thickness measurement on extruded sheet, film, or coatings
Weld bead profile and undercut inspection in-line
Machined feature height and flatness gauging at the machine
Runout and diameter measurement on rotating parts
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Related work
Radar centering system for steel mills
Components:
- Radar sensors (strip position): Non-contact radar reading strip edge position in a hot, dusty, vibrating environment where optical sensors fail.
- Edge controller (signal processing): Turns raw radar returns into a clean lateral offset in real time.
- Mill PLC (centering actuators): The mill's existing controller: receives the offset and drives the centering actuators.
- Operator HMI (live position): Live strip position for the operator.
Connections:
- Radar sensors to Edge controller (raw returns)
- Edge controller to Mill PLC (offset)
- Edge controller to Operator HMI
A steel-mill systems provider · Steel manufacturing
Radar-based centering system for steel mills
End-to-end engineering of a radar sensing system that measures and centers material on steel mill lines — from equipment assessment through hardware selection, electrical engineering, software, installation, and commissioning.
Read the case study →Common questions
Asked before every laser measurement systems project.
Can laser sensors measure shiny or transparent surfaces?
Standard triangulation struggles with mirrors and glass because the return signal misbehaves, but the right principle handles them: confocal chromatic sensors excel on polished and transparent surfaces and can even measure glass thickness from one side. This is exactly why we run feasibility measurements on your actual parts before specifying hardware.
What accuracy is realistic in-line versus in a lab?
Sensor datasheets quote lab conditions. In-line, vibration, part presentation, and temperature typically cost you a factor of a few, which is why we design mounting and fixturing as carefully as we select sensors. We state expected in-line uncertainty during design and verify it during commissioning, so there are no surprises.
How does the data get to our quality system?
However your quality system wants it. Typical integrations write per-part results to a database or MES, export CSV or QIF for SPC software, and expose live values to the PLC for real-time limits. Every measurement is timestamped and traceable to a part or lot identifier.
Can laser measurement replace our CMM?
For the features it can see, and only after correlation proves it. In-line laser gauging is typically used to measure the handful of critical dimensions on every part, while the CMM keeps doing full layouts on samples and first articles. Some features — deep bores, undercuts, features behind other features — remain out of reach for a laser line. We map your drawing against what the sensor can reach during feasibility and tell you what stays on the CMM.
Are laser measurement sensors safe on the floor?
Most industrial triangulation and profile sensors use low-power visible or near-infrared lasers in the lower laser classes, and we specify the class as part of the design. Where a sensor is a higher class, we add the required beam shielding, labeling, and interlocks, and document it for your safety program. Laser class is a design input we address up front, not something discovered when the safety officer walks past the cell.
Where this sits
Laser Measurement Systems, inside a vision & advanced sensing system.
The lit component is the part of the system this service delivers; the rest is what it has to work with.
Hover or focus a component to see what it is and what it talks to. Arrow keys move between them.
A part is presented under controlled lighting, a camera captures a frame per trigger, inspection compute decides, the PLC rejects, and every result lands in a database that feeds SPC dashboards.
Components:
- Part (on conveyor): Presentation is half the problem: fixturing, orientation and cycle time decide what is possible.
- Lighting (ring / backlight): Chosen for the defect, not the camera. Lighting is where most vision projects are won or lost.
- Camera (GigE, triggered): Machine vision camera, hardware-triggered per part.
- Inspection compute (edge PC): Runs the inspection — classical tools, a trained model, or both — within cycle time.
- Line PLC (reject / accept): Acts on the verdict: reject gate, line stop, or count.
- Results DB (every part): Every inspection result, with the image reference, for traceability and SPC.
- SPC dashboard (trends): Escape rate, false-reject rate and drift over time.
Connections:
- Part to Camera over digital I/O (trigger)
- Lighting to Camera
- Camera to Inspection compute over GigE
- Inspection compute to Line PLC over digital I/O
- Inspection compute to Results DB over SQL
- Results DB to SPC dashboard over REST
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