CAPPA was delighted to have Dr Anton Walsh speaking on “Shortwave infrared imaging of thin film coatings concealed inside polypropylene tubing” at the second Spectro Expo exhibition. The exhibition took place from the 24 to 26 of September in Amsterdam with over 340 individuals in attendance from both industry and academia. The Spectro Expo comprises two scientific conferences, the Workshop on Hyperspectral Image and Signal Processing: Evolution in Remote Sensing (WHISPERS) and Symposium on Short Wave Infrared Imaging and Spectroscopy (SWIIMS), in conjunction with an exhibition area, for sensor designers, software producers and service providers. The all – encompassing meeting focuses on bringing together industry and scientific leaders of the hyperspectral world, disseminating knowledge and guiding future work. Dr Walsh contributed to the SWIIMS conference, which brings together people working in spectral imaging in the 780 – 2500 nm wavelength range.

Dr Walsh spoke on day two of the meeting on the SWIIMS stage focusing on Applications: Materials, Art and Vegetation. CAPPA developed a novel optical technique to non -destructively and quantitatively measure coating coverage. A prototype system, capable of determining defects in thin film coatings of polyurethane (PU) and polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP) concealed on the inner surface of a polypropylene tube, has been built. The tubing cross – section is several millimeters and has a wall thickness of 200µm. Shortwave Infrared absorption of the coating is used to identify the coating coverage and a multivariate analysis is used to remove the effects of absorption and scattering by the tubing wall. Dr Walsh demonstrated the application of the technique to an industry need for measuring defects in the manufacturing of medical devices.

In the medical device sector CAPPA focuses on various areas including; biomedical imaging, point-of-care diagnostics, advanced surgical tools and device manufacturing. For biomedical imaging, CAPPA has worked on optical coherence tomography, multi-modal IR-vis cameras for skin cancer diagnosis and designing and prototyping bespoke imaging systems. For point-of-care diagnostics, CAPPA has experience with lab-on-chip blood analyzers, breath gas analysis and non-contact optical pulse velocimetry for screening arterial stiffness. For advanced surgical tools, CAPPA has been involved in projects focusing on functionalised guide wires in keyhole surgery, focusing on blood velocimetry and multi – modal tomography or spectroscopy in endoscopes, for tumour detection. For device manufacturing, CAPPA has experience in automated quality inspection tools, precision metrology of components, contaminant identification, integration and development of tailor – made software solutions, development of systems for prototype designing and optimizing component layout for efficiency.

You can learn more about the services available at CAPPA here and about CAPPA’s experience in working in the medical sector here.