A new company with an innovative film measurement technology is seeking resellers to support its international expansion.
Hammer-IMS, which is headquartered in Belgium, supplies high-tech, highly accurate and contactless measurement millimeter wave systems for plastic sheet, film and foam extrusion.
Hammer IMS
The ground-breaking measurement Marveloc 602 system and supporting CURTAIN mechanical technology combine numerous advantages including clean non-nuclear and non-radioactive technology that it suitable for materials of thicknesses up to a few centimeters. The modular and robust system supports multiple sensor heads to efficiently measure thickness and weight profiles in cross-machine direction.
Hammer-IMS is a spin-off from the internationally-renowned research laboratory ESAT - MICAS of KU Leuven. The company was given an €800,000 (£695,000) injection from Gemma Frisius Fonds of KU Leuven and Limburgse Investerings maatschappij (LRM) to allow Technical and Product Manager Tom Redant and General Manager Noël Deferm to start work.
Powerful alternative
Deferm and Redant had an eight-year research background at the university and had developed new systems for measuring thickness and weight in production lines offering a powerful alternative to traditional nuclear measuring equipment.
Before starting Hammer-IMS, Noël Deferm and Tom Redant worked for years as doctoral researchers in the ESAT - MICAS research group of KU Leuven. Deferm specialised in the high frequency technology itself, while Redant developed methods to retrieve useful dimensional information from the environment. They discovered that electro magnetic waves slow down when penetrating materials such as paper and plastic and through an accurate time measurement system, they succeeded in measuring the thickness or the basis-weight of a range of materials.
"The innovation is the combination of different specialties, which allows new applications to emerge," explained Prof Patrick Reynaert, ESAT - MICAS. "Through extensive research, Noël and Tom were able to take the lab measurements and successfully apply these on the production floor. Millimeter waves – the core of their measuring technology – are also used in mobile communication, adaptive cruise control and radar systems."
Faster, more accurate quality control
"By controlling ever higher frequencies, we succeed in measuring materials faster and more accurately on the assembly line," said Redant. "This is good news for manufacturers with the ambition to equip their production lines with faster and more accurately quality control. In the meantime we built industrial prototypes of our measuring systems and developed a commercial portfolio of robust measuring solutions. The Hammer-IMS product offering currently contains entry level variants complemented with higher-performance measuring systems."
Hammer-IMS
Hammer-IMS founders Noël Deferm and Tom Redant.
Redant added that a number of international manufacturers – also in Flanders – have subscribed to test measurements with Hammer-IMS systems in their production lines.
"We are going to dedicate the invested resources to perfecting our technology, which is patent pending, and aligning it better with market requirements," noted Deferm. "Ultimately we have the ambition to gradually make our millimeter waves-based measuring technology the gold standard in our application domains."
The Hammer-IMS team is based at the Corda Campus in Hasselt, North-East Belgium and asks potential resellers to get in touch via www.hammer-ims.com/become-a-reseller.
