AAC Best Paper Award goes to Sensofar

AAC 2014 Best Paper Award – In the last report of the Aluminum Anodizers Annual Conference & Exhibition (Pittsburgh, 2014), Sensofar’s “Using Optical areal measurement methods to assess the surface shape and texture on aluminium anodized surfaces” article submission has received the Robert L. Kersman Award of Excellence for the Best Paper. The article was the result of the work undertaken by Andrés Arasanz, Niels Schwarz, Aitor Matilla and Jordi Mariné of Sensofar, together with Roger Artigas and Cristina Cadevall of the CD6 (Centre for Sensors, Instruments and Systems Development, based in Terrassa, Spain).

The organizing body of the event, the Aluminum Anodizers Council (AAC, www.anodizing.org), is an US-based, international trade association of organizations engaged in aluminum anodizing, and provides support to members as well as users of anodized aluminum through education, advocacy and promotion. The Council combines the many voices of the associated industries into a single lobby, designed to promote the common interests of the members (and users).

The article presented at the 2014 Conference describes how a multi-technology approach to 3D surface metrology (combining confocal and interferometric methods in a single system) makes characterization of surface topographies and coatings – in this case of an air/anodizing/aluminum interface system – both accurate and easy. In particular, combining approaches means that evaluation of surface texture in the aluminum and the oxide layer can be made at the same time, in turn meaning that defects can be assessed in 3D both prior to the anodization process and in the final product.