Apparatus and method for determining a distance measure on wound-up materials

An apparatus for determining a distance measure between a beginning and an end of a material strip wound onto a body in a tangential direction by a winding operation, comprising:

• a sensor device formed to create a height profile of a surface of the material strip, which covers the beginning and the end of the wound material strip in a tangential direction;
• an evaluator formed to analyze the height profile so as to determine a position value of the beginning of the material strip in the height profile;
• and
• a determiner formed to determine the distance measure using the position value of the beginning and the height profile covering the end of the material strip;
• wherein the height profile is created during the winding operation, wherein height information associated with respective position values is determined and stored for a plurality of position values known or being equidistant in a tangential direction, and
• wherein the determiner is configured to extrapolate the position value of the beginning of the material strip to an extrapolated position value by adding a complete revolution of the body to the position value, to perform an analysis of the position values only in a range surrounding the extrapolated position value in order to find a position value of the end of the material strip, so that the end of the material strip is logically distinguished from artifacts occurring outside of the range surrounding the extrapolated position value, and to determine, as the distance measure, a tangential distance between the position value of the beginning of the material strip and the position value of the end of the material strip.

A non-transitory storage medium having stored thereon a computer program with a program code for performing a method of determining a distance measure between a beginning and an end of a material strip wound onto a body in a tangential direction by a winding operation, comprising:

• creating a height profile of a surface of the material strip, which covers the beginning and the end of the wound material strip in the tangential direction;
• determining a position value of the beginning of the material strip in the created height profile;
• and determining the distance measured by using the position value of the beginning and the height profile covering the end of the material strip, wherein the height profile is created during the winding operation, wherein height information associated with respective position values is determined and stored for a plurality of position values known or being equidistant in a tangential direction, and wherein determining comprises extrapolating the position value of the beginning of the material strip to an extrapolated position value by adding a complete revolution of the body to the position value, performing an analysis of the position values only in a range surrounding the extrapolated position value in order to find a position value of the end of the material strip, so that the end of the material strip is logically distinguished from artifacts occurring outside of the range surrounding the extrapolated position value, and determining, as the distance measure, a tangential distance between the position value of the beginning of the material strip and the position value of the end of the material strip, when the program is executed on a computer.

A system for winding a material strip onto a body in a tangential direction by a winding operation, comprising:

• a rotator coupled to the body and formed to set the body to rotation in a tangential direction and wind up the material strip;
• and
• a control device for determining a distance measure between a beginning and an end of the material strip wound onto the body in the tangential direction, comprising:
• a sensor device formed to create a height profile of a surface of the material strip, which covers the beginning and the end of the wound material strip in a tangential direction;
• an evaluator formed to analyze the height profile so as to determine a position value of the beginning of the material strip in the height profile;
• and
• a determiner formed to determine the distance measure using the position value of the beginning and the height profile covering the end of the material strip,
• wherein the height profile is created during the winding operation, wherein height information associated with respective position values is determined and stored for a plurality of position values known or being equidistant in a tangential direction, and
• wherein the determiner is configured to extrapolate the position value of the beginning of the material strip to an extrapolated position value by adding a complete revolution of the body to the position value, to perform an analysis of the position values only in a range surrounding the extrapolated position value in order to find a position value of the end of the material strip, so that the end of the material strip is logically distinguished from artifacts occurring outside of the range surrounding the extrapolated position value, and to determine, as the distance measure, a tangential distance between the position value of the beginning of the material strip and the position value of the end of the material strip.