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Novel Uses of Fluorilon FW99 and FGS Reflectance Materials

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Fluorilon™ FW99 and Fluorilon grey scale materials (FGS-XX) have a long history of being used for remote sensing and hyperspectral imaging targets. The uniform diffuse reflectance and predictable scatter (in terms of BRDF) make Fluorilon an almost ideal material for calibration of hyperspectral imaging systems.

Modeling of Smalls Using Fluorilon FW99 and FGS-XX materials

Recently, one of our colleagues at USDA-Beltsville needed some materials to model a system looking at hyperspectral imaging of grains (corn and wheat) and wanted to do the same for pharmaceutical pills for another project. With the use of readily available machine tools (a vertical milling machine, aka a Bridgeport mill) and commonly available boring tools, he and his colleagues were able to produce a variety of shapes from both white and grey Fluorilon materials that closely mimicked the target materials. The group used a 3D Printer to print a holder for each shape out of black plastic. The wells held the cylindrical standards (4.4 mm, 6.4 mm, and 10.3 mm diameter)  at three orientations (0°, 90°, and 45°).

Fluorilon cylinders in holder
Figure 1: Machined Fluorilon parts to model hyperspectral imaging of pills and caplets, in 3D printed holder with black background for hyperspectral imaging. While these are simple cylinders, more complex shapes can be fabricated.
Diagram of holder
Figure 2: Diagram of 3D printed holder for parts.

Flourilon FW99 white diffuse reflectance material and various reflectances of Fluorilon FGS-xx grey scale material can be readily machined to produce small hyperspectral imaging standards for the pharmaceutical and agricultural industry. These standards will aid in modeling imaging of seeds and pills/caplets and increase accuracy in on-line spectroscopic measurements.

Our thanks to Dr. Stephen Delwiche at USDA-ARS Beltsville for sharing his work with us.

Learn more about Fluorilon FW99 and Fluorilon FGS-xx on our site, or contact Avian Technologies for more information about custom applications.