Saint-Gobain selects MTI Instruments’ digital capacitance measurement technology to streamline R&D

Albany, NY – MTI Instruments, Inc. announced that Compagnie de Saint-Gobain has selected MTI Instruments’ non-destructive measurement technology to help streamline the Saint-Gobain’s manufacturing research and development.

Saint-Gobain, a French multinational corporation that designs, manufactures, and distributes various high-performance materials, chose MTI Instruments as a partner after identifying that the process for producing accurate and repeatable measurement solutions was time-consuming and cost-prohibitive.

Saint-Gobain estimated that just 30% of their process improvement projects reach factory implementation. Seeking an alternative specifically to measure closed-cell foam density, Saint-Gobain worked with MTI Instruments to install a digital, capacitance-based Accumeasure system.

“We chose MTI Instruments’ Digital Accumeasure product for many reasons. The non-contact technology was just one of the pluses,” said Dr. Mickael Boinet, Smart Manufacturing team leader at the Competency Research Laboratories at Saint-Gobain. “We investigated various impedance measurement companies in Europe, but ultimately determined that the amplifier made by MTI Instruments was superior.”

To determine the material’s density, MTI Instruments first reconfigured its Accumeasure amplifier and probes to measure the capacitance of Saint-Gobain’s closed-cell foam. A calibration procedure then removed the need for time consuming calculation, since a non-conductive material’s capacitance is directly proportional to its density, provided the thickness of the material is also known. Subsequent factory testing proved that the solution met Saint-Gobain’s requirements.

MTI Instruments continues to research additional methods to improve non-contact thickness and density measurements for Saint-Gobain’s non-conductive materials.

“MTI Instruments is proud to serve Saint-Gobain. We are thrilled with the results so far. Our mission is to provide material manufacturers, like Saint-Gobain, real-time measurement systems using non-destructive methods. As their needs evolve, we will be ready to provide next-level solutions,” said Moshe Binyamin, President of MTI Instruments.  

MTI Instruments’ digital Accumeasure system uses a direct-conversion approach that eliminates the errors of traditional amplifiers, which include analog filtering, linearization, range extension, and summing of channels. The technology features accurate data capture with lossless processing, which eliminates the need for additional data-acquisition hardware.