Emtec Electronic Gmbh

Emtec TSA – Tactile Sensation Analyzer

emtec TSA – Tactile Sensation Analyzer

The emtec TSA Tactile Sensation Analyzer offers an objective measurement of the softness, smoothness and flexibility as well as thermal and optical properties of tissue paper (base tissue, finished products as toilet paper, facials, but also hand sheets).

Traditionally, the hand feel of a tissue product has been tested by the human hand, in the best case by human hand panels. The human feeling depends on several factors, e.g. personal and market specific preferences, the daily mood and the culture. A further disadvantage is the inability to feel the three basic haptic parameters individually, which determine the overall haptic impression of a material that is touched by the hand.

The emtec TSA Tactile Sensation Analyzer objectively measures the micro-surface variations (feeling of softness), the macro-surface variations (feeling of smoothness) and the flexibility (in-plane stiffness) of any kind of tissue paper (base material and finished products). These are the three basic haptic parameters, which are also felt by the human hand, but the TSA provides a result for each of the three individually. By the help of special algorithms, these three single parameters can be combined to the so-called hand feel (HF) value. With the right mathematical model, a correlation to the human expectation of up to almost 100 percent is possible. The device with its measurement method and procedure is already subject of a released TAPPI Technical Information Paper (TIP): “Objective Determination of the Haptic Properties of Tissue Products, Technical Information Paper TIP 0808-07 (2021)”.

The revised emtec TSA Tactile Sensation Analyzer (previous Tissue Softness Analyzer) offers several new features as optional add-ons:

• Thermo-haptics (surface thermal conductivity)
• Thermal insulation
• High resolution picture
• All the digital data can be stored and categorized in the Virtual Haptic Library, which is used for real-time remote quality assurance and as an online marketplace

Advantages:

• Measurement of the three parameters, which determine the human feeling: softness, smoothness, flexibility
• Calculation of the hand feel value
• Objective, accurate, reliable
• Very good correlation to the human feeling
• Several new features as optional add-on (thermal & optical properties, automatic cloud-based categorization)

Users:

• Pulp producers
• Chemical suppliers
• Tissue makers & converters
• tissue machine builders
• retailers
• universities and institutes

Application areas:

• Research & Development
• Process & product optimization
• Quality assurance & incoming control
• Troubleshooting & complaint management
• Benchmarking