Emtec Electronic Launch Extended the New TSA, Has Haptic and Optical Properties
The redesigned TSA (Tactile Sensation Analyzer) has been developed for measuring springback as well as a detailed digital analysis of nonwoven’s haptic and optical properties. It also offers advanced haptic measurement capabilities such as the the Virtual Haptic Library. The new TSA will be available in 2024.
“The new TSA provides several additional advantages for nonwoven producers aiming to optimize the quality of their products, design specialty products, and unify the production and quality assurance across sites,” explains Giselher Gruener, founder and General Manager at emtec. “We are proud to further support the industry needs with this new innovation.”
The Leipzig-based manufacturer of specialized testing equipment for the paper, textiles, and nonwovens industries, emtec Electronic, is proud to announce it latest innovation: the new-and-improved TSA Tactile Sensation Analyzer. The portable lab device is set to revolutionize the way manufacturers test haptics, making the subjective sense of touch a digital experience. Improvements to the design and functionality allow manufacturers to more precisely determine the springback behavior of products, measure thermohaptics, capture optical traits such as material structure or design print, and store the results in a cloud-based database.
Much like its predecessor, the new TSA Tactile Sensation Analyzer allows manufacturers to objectively measure the haptic traits that determine the subjective way a material feels to the touch, calculate specific hand-feel values, and reliably compare samples. Now, in addition to measuring the softness, smoothness, flexibility, and deformation/recovery behavior of base and finished products, the redesign now includes the following features:
- Surface thermal conductivity and thermal insulation measurement – The TSA reliably measures a product’s thermal “handshake,” delivering objective data on how warm or cool a material feels to the touch. This feature allows manufacturers, researchers and developers, and in particular chemical suppliers to test the thermal effects of certain additives when developing new products with cooling or insulating properties, such as wipes with a cooling sensation.
- An improved design for measuring springback behavior – The TSA employs an improved method for measuring recovery behavior, which accurately captures the fabric’s ability to return to its original shape after deformation. This function is especially useful in the design and quality control of nonwoven products such as diapers or feminine hygiene articles, where rebound plays a key role in comfort. But also as part of quality control, manufacturers can better evaluate the flexibility and recovery of the material and ensure that the required performance standards are met.
- An integrated high-resolution camera – To digitize optical properties, the camera captures a high-resolution image of the sample, showing in detail the fabric structure, the design as well as any visual embellishments.
- A cloud-based Virtual Haptic Library – The Library was developed in cooperation with Black Swan Textiles and is an online database, available via license, in which sample data can be automatically digitized, processed, and categorized according to specific haptic and optical traits. This data can be accessed in real-time by authorized persons from anywhere in the world, enabling efficient quality assurance and control regardless of location. The Virtual Haptic Library can also be used as an online marketplace, that simplifies and speeds up the search and comparison of samples and patterns certain haptic or optical requirements many times over.