Digital hazemeter Rhopoint ID

Overview
The Rhopoint ID is an imaging transmission appearance meter that quantifies the see-through qualities of transparent materials in a single measurement. It measures transmission haze, sharpness and clarity and can characterise waviness and distance-dependent haze. The instrument captures an image of a backlit reference graticule through the test material and uses image analysis to derive parameters that correlate closely with human visual perception. The ID can measure small samples that traditional haze meters cannot analyse and provides ASTM D1003-equivalent haze data on demand.

Key functions

• Quantifies Haze (loss of contrast of viewed objects)
• Measures Sharpness (loss of perceived detail)
• Measures Clarity (compatible scale with traditional clarity meters)
• Evaluates Waviness / orange-peel style effects (edge distortion)
• Measures Distance-Dependent Haze (0–40 mm air-gap range)
• Reports Visible Transmittance

Benefits

• Comprehensive quantitative evaluation of transparency: Haze, Sharpness, Clarity
• Measurements correlated with visual perception including air-gap and anisotropy effects
• On-demand ASTM D1003-equivalent haze measurement (when using ASTM platen)
• Ability to identify local optical defects and directional (anisotropic) effects
• Suitable for plastic films and sheets, glasses, coatings and liquids up to 35 mm thickness
• Low cost compared with many conventional instruments
• Robust, compact design; no moving parts for rapid acquisition (suitable for process or QC)
• Intuitive built-in software for data management and image analysis

How it works
The instrument backlights a high-accuracy reference graticule (target) which acts as the viewed object. Light passes through the test material and the camera records the resulting image. Image analysis quantifies changes in the transmission pattern to produce the measurement parameters (Haze, Sharpness, Clarity, Waviness, Distance Dependent Haze).

Measurement parameters — details

• Haze — quantifies loss of contrast for objects viewed through a material; values compatible with ASTM D1003 when using the 8 mm ASTM platen
• Sharpness — quantifies loss of perceived detail; higher resolution than Clarity for detailed analysis
• Clarity — compressed-scale metric compatible with conventional clarity/haze meters; ID can reproduce inter-instrument clarity agreement to typical commercial tolerances
• Waviness — measures visible distortion from larger surface structures (0.1–2 mm), often described as orange-peel; reported as standard deviation of edge deformation (W) and directional components WH / Wv
• Distance Dependent Haze — quantifies how haze varies with air-gap (0–40 mm), enabling matching of material performance to real application distances

Applications / Industries

• Packaging (plastic films, blister packaging)
• Architectural and privacy glass
• Glass and sheeted plastics (films, PET bottles)
• Coatings and liquids
• Any application where see-through quality, product visibility or surface appearance matter

Why use the ID

• Provides a single, comprehensive characterisation of transparency-related appearance attributes
• Measures small samples not possible with traditional haze meters
• Improves correlation to customer perception by including distance and directional effects
• Enables process optimisation, quality control and reduction of waste by measuring the optical consequences of material or process changes

Technical specifications

• Measured parameters: Haze, Sharpness, Clarity, Waviness (W, WH, Wv), Distance-dependent Haze, Visible Transmittance
• Sample types: plastic films & sheets, glasses, coatings, liquids (suitable for thicknesses up to 35 mm)
• Distance measurement range for Distance-Dependent Haze: 0–40 mm
• On-demand ASTM D1003-equivalent haze measurement (ASTM platen / ASTM haze compatibility)
• Inter-instrument clarity agreement (reported examples): <0.4% C (SD) for commercial films <1000 μm; <0.5% C (SD) for thicker transparent plastics up to ~6 mm
• No moving parts; rapid image acquisition — suitable for (in-line) process and QC
• Factory calibrated to ASTM standards where applicable
• Built-in image-analysis software with laboratory analysis options (including anisotropy / directionality analysis for ID-L version)
• Ability to identify local optical defects and directional textures (anisotropic effects)