The design of food packaging and films has become more complex in recent years. Most films consist of multiple layers laminated together, each designed to act as a barrier to oxygen, moisture and other external influences that can cause the food to spoil. Individual layers may be aluminum foil, plastic film or even metallized plastic.
Each layer must be a controlled thickness – too thin and it will fail to protect the contents of the package, too thick and material will be wasted, increasing the cost of the package. As design and manufacturing requirements for these films have become more complex, the need for faster, more accurate, and more highly automated inspection of these materials has also increased. Traditional manual methods of inspection that need to be set up differently for each measurement task are no longer adequate beyond research and development.