Plastic optical fibre sensor for quality control in food industry
Novo, C.
;
Bilro, L.
; Ferreira, R. X.
;
Alberto, N.
;
Antunes, P.
; Leitão, C. Leitão
;
Nogueira, R.N.
;
Pinto, J. L.
Plastic optical fibre sensor for quality control in food industry, Proc European Workshop on Optical Fibre Sensors - EWOFS, Warsaw, Poland, Vol. 8794 , pp. UNSP 879411 - UNSP 879411, May, 2013.
Digital Object Identifier: 10.1117/12.2025489
Abstract
The present work addresses the need for new devices felt in the context of quality control, especially in the food industry. Due to the spectral dependence of the attenuation coefficient, a novel dual-parameter sensor for colour and refractive index was developed and tested. The sensor employs plastic optical fibres to measure the transmitted optical power in three measurement cells each with a different incident wavelength. The performance of the sensor was tested using several dyes at different concentrations and aqueous solutions of glycerine and ethanol. Results show that this technique allows the monitoring of refractive index and colour without cross-sensitivity.