ASPEX INCORPORATED/USA HISTORY & SpinTrak™ KEY FEATURES

• 25 October 2018
• by: Dmitriy
• in: New Innovations
• note: no comments

1) Some new features which aids in finding deep dirt inside the capillary, wear inspection (subject to spinneret condition), and skewness inspection.

2) Sub-capillary inspection of complex capillaries (not round) shape is one of our strongest features. For example, if we want to inspect trilobal capillaries, then our field of view (FOV) is higher than round capillaries because manufacturing tolerances for non-round capillary shapes are more than round capillary shapes. This explains why it is important to inspect non-round capillaries more accurately. The larger the FOV (more no. of pixels) – the lower the pixel to micron ratio is which provides more accurate measurements.

2a) For example, in trilobal capillaries, there are 3 legs and each leg plays very important role. Therefore, the SpinTrak™ makes more than 30+ measurements (ie. leg length , leg width , angle , radius of every leg).  All geometric measurements are made in the same inspection time like a round capillary. In other systems, many do not make sub-capillary inspection.

2b) In hollow capillary shapse (2C,3C or 4C), we consider every C as separate capillary. 2c) SpinTrak™ can inspect 4 capillaries separately in 1 counterbore and can also inspect 4 different capillary shapes in single spinneret.

In the last 15 years, Aspex inc. gained experience inspecting many new shaped spinneret designs with new or unique capillary shapes.  Some of them are expensive spinnerets ($20,000 / piece). This experience and industry cooperation helped accelerate improvements and new inspection capabilities in the SpinTrak™ system.

3) Having sold more than 500 machines in 30+ countries, Aspex has a very large global presence and SpinTrak™ usage in a wide range of applications.

4)  An important reason the SpinTrak™ has gained wide acceptance and sold in 30 + countries is it operates on a platform of menu driven user friendly software which is available in many popular languages where the  It requires almost zero maintenance with very low spare parts consumption. There is no need to purchase extra spare parts with the machine.

5) At this moment, SpinTrak™ measurements are considered as the “Bench mark” and “trusted” spinneret inspection system by end users and major Spinneret suppliers. SpinTrak™ systems are used by these spinneret manufacturers just to check quality of their new spinnerets.

6) As a testimonial to being the leader in the industry competitors try to emulate, the US court has issued an injunction against one of the competitors who violated our secrets and confidential information. This means that they can also do the same with customer.   In contrast Aspex Incorporated respects confidentiality and secrecy with their customer base like a trusted partner (like spinneret design , their know-how of production ,etc.).

7) The  SpinTrak™ system motorized zoom is offered on the B40-HS model. This means that no operator presence is required for adjusting the zoom level.

7a) The camera for the B40-HS is @1.4 megapixels. This provides a platform for a highly accurate system.

8) It is possible to inspect different spinneret types at a time. For example, Both spinnerets can be different spinneret type (with different no. of capillaries , different capillary size). This is applicable for up to 10 locations.

9) They use very low quality calibration scale and I strongly feel that it’s just for show and they also do not do calibration before inspection. Whereas , Aspex uses very high standard calibration scale (reticle) which is fitted into glass so that temperature variation does not affect. Their calibration scale is open to environment. This means that tool which they use itself is not accurate.

10) In some plants (for example, in China and India) , the customer returned competitor demo systems after trying them and bought SpinTrak™ because of their performance experience. Some positive feedback about the SpinTrak™  compared to competitor trials included the reliability of the software and the accuracty (especially important for smaller capillaries).

11) The important inspection measurements of the SpinTrak™ are based on sub-pixels & sub-microns. This means that our accuracy & repeatability is much better.

12) The first machine for inspecting a fiber spinneret was sold in 1992 & it is still working. This itself speaks about Aspex’s commitment to the product quality and industry support.