497 Film Thickness Gauge

The ERICHSEN 497 Film Thickness Gauge is a small, light, high-precision instrument. Its sample stage consists of a lower measuring anvil fixed to a support bracket and a retractable upper measuring anvil. The assembly also includes a dial with zero setting, a plastic handle insulated from the dial, and a thumb lever.

The gauge comes with a plastic case.

Technical data
Measuring range: 0–1000 µm (full range; the small dial is divided into 5 parts: 0.2, 0.4, 0.6, 0.8 and 1 mm)
0–200 µm with 1 µm divisions (0–100 µm either side, resolution 1 µm)

Net weight: approx. 100 g

Accuracy: ±1 µm

Throat depth: 30 mm

Measuring area: approx. 30 mm²; anvil diameter approx. 6 mm

Measuring force: approx. 1.2 N, about 0.04 N/mm²

ERICHSEN 497

Film Thickness Gauge

Product overview

The ERICHSEN 497 Film Thickness Gauge is a small, light, high-precision instrument. Its sample stage consists of a lower measuring anvil fixed to a support bracket and a retractable upper measuring anvil. The assembly also includes a dial with zero setting, a plastic handle insulated from the dial, and a thumb lever.

The gauge comes with a plastic case.

Applications

The ERICHSEN 497 is mainly used in two areas:

v Measuring the thickness of metal foils, plastic films, board, paper and other thin sheets.

v Measuring coating thickness on non-metallic sheet materials, such as coatings on plastic sheets, or printing ink on paper, board or card. Ordinary coating thickness gauges cannot measure these coatings, but the 497 makes it easy: measure the substrate thickness first, then the total thickness with the coating, and subtract the substrate to get the coating thickness.

Besides these two areas, the gauge has one particularly important application: scrub resistance tests on Leneta films. This test procedure complies with German standard DIN 53 778 Part 2, "Black and white contrast charts for colour measurement and hiding power". Instruments specified for the test include the ERICHSEN 510 Automatic Film Applicator, 494 MC Scrub Tester, 288 / 358 / 360 / 411 / 421 Film Applicators and 451 test charts.

Test principle

The ERICHSEN 497 has two measuring anvils: a fixed lower anvil on the support bracket and a retractable upper anvil. Pressing the thumb lever acts on a spring and raises the upper anvil. Once there is enough room, insert the sheet and release your thumb; the upper anvil returns and clamps the sheet. The gap between the anvils is then the thickness of the sheet and can be read from the dial.

The principle is a height difference: the displacement of the upper anvil from the zero point (anvils closed) to the point where it clamps the sheet is the thickness of the object.

The gauge has two dials and two pointers. The long pointer and large dial read tens and units (the large dial has a distinctive dual 0–100 scale and is read together with the small dial for precision); the short pointer and small dial read hundreds. In the example shown, the small-dial pointer has not passed 0.1 and the large dial reads 50 on the clockwise (right-hand) side, so the reading is 50 µm: the film is 50 micrometres thick.