In industrial production, accurate thickness measurement is only the starting point. Quick fixes like general-purpose sensors and add-on software lack the right tools for alarming, recipe management, diagnostics and control.
To truly improve consistency, efficiency and yield, you need a complete thickness monitoring system that integrates rugged hardware with purpose-built software. It needs to be designed for the non-stop demands of manufacturing your flat goods.
Built into every Mate Gauge system is mgOS, our thickness monitoring software.
Engineered specifically for inline use, mgOS transforms raw measurements into actionable insights, providing your operators and managers with the clarity and control they need to keep your lines running smoothly.
Below, we explore what makes mgOS unique, and why that matters for high-yield flat foods manufacturers.
Key features of a thickness monitoring software
mgOS thickness monitoring software is a collection of individual features and modules that collectively come together to enable the always-on coverage that manufacturers need across their lines.
These features include:
- Virtual micrometer. Gives instant, micrometer-like readings directly with an inline gauge. This bridges the gap between lab tools and production, giving operators an easy, familiar way to validate thickness on the fly, without having to pull samples.
- mgApps. Featuring industry-specific functions, mgOS comes standard with an advanced repository of apps catered to specific thickness monitoring needs across a multitude of production materials.
- Recipes. Simplify changeovers and standardize quality. With recipe-based setup, mgOS stores and recalls product specifications, reducing operator error and ensuring consistency across every run.
- Warnings and alarms. Stay ahead of problems with intelligent alarms. mgOS highlights out-of-spec conditions in real time, so operators can take immediate action and prevent costly scrap or downtime.
- PLC integration. Connect seamlessly to your line. mgOS integrates directly with PLCs and plan data systems, making thickness information available where it’s needed most — from the shop floor to corporate reporting.
- Closed-loop control. Turn measurement into action. mgOS closes the loop by feeding thickness data back to your process controls, automatically adjusting production parameters to maintain target specifications and reduce variation.
Below, we’ll dig into each of these features in more detail to highlight how they work, and the benefits for Mate Gauge customers.
1. Virtual micrometer
Mate Gauge’s virtual micrometer technology gives you fast, repeatable, inline measurements without slowing your line.
Manual micrometers have their place, but they can’t keep up with production speed and may deliver different results depending on the user. Mate Gauge gives you the familiar readings of your micrometer but in digital form.
Here’s how it works.
Match your process: place the virtual micrometer at the same positions where you currently use hand mics.
- Increase speed: Capture measurements continuously, in real time, rather than spot-checking manually.
- Eliminate variability: Ensure consistent results regardless of operator or shift.
- Customize measurements: Adjust anvil size and mic placement (centered, repeated, custom, or zone-based) to fit your measurement needs.
- Automated record-keeping: All measurements are logged automatically to a CSV file, so results are saved and accessible without manual data entry.
Vmics give you the same familiar workflow as hand micrometers, but with far greater accuracy, efficiency, and confidence with every measurement.
Here’s how Vmic’s anvil settings provide complete thickness coverage across your lime.
Anvil size
With Mate Gauge mgOS, you can set different anvil styles depending on the job you’re running. Flat anvils are the standard choice for measuring sheets and other flat materials. Disk anvils spread out the contact area, making them ideal for thin or delicate products like foils, films, or veneers. Point anvils focus on small areas, perfect for checking grooves, ridges, or edges where flat anvils can’t reach.
Anvil spacing
With micrometers, readings are taken at spaced-out points to check consistency across the sheet — otherwise variations at the edges or center might be missed. Mate Gauge removes that limitation, enabling you to capture thickness anywhere on the material for a complete and accurate picture.
Anvil pressure
Even though Mate Gauge removes the risk of contact-based measurement error that you would typically find with handheld micrometers, mgOS can simulate different pressure inputs to ensure complete process control.
2. mgApps
Mate Gauge mgOS includes a variety of easy-to-use apps for all types of use cases, line types, and information needs. This lets you get the data you need, in the way that you need it.
Examples of mgApps include:
Strips
Our strips app displays the mean thickness of each of your strips as well as the cross-sectional shape.
Additional parameters such as strip minimum, strip maximum, standard deviation and width are all calculated and shown on screen. Mate Gauge scans across your line, removes the gaps between your strips and displays results on screen.
Rolled-lead strip
Our rolled lead strip thickness app measures at both edges, along with the center of your line.
The thickness of each of the three locations is displayed, along with the mean thickness and the standard deviation. As well, the rolled lead strip app calculates and displays the strips in-unit, allowing for simple understanding of strip waviness.
Gypsum
Our gypsum thickness app reports on the board’s face, shoulders and tapers.
The thickness mean, maximum and minimum are all reported along with the thickness across various zones of the shoulder, the depth and width of the taper, and the board’s edge angles.
Peak detection
Our peak detection app is used on products where peak thickness or depth measurements are necessary.
The app displays the number of peaks, the thickness of each peak or valley, along with the location of each peak, making evaluation of your product easy.
Single scan: cross section
The Cross-Section screen provides a live thickness profile of the product across its width.
This view makes it easy to identify local variations, trends, or deviations from the nominal value. Operators can use the graph and cursor tools to examine specific locations, confirm uniformity, and quickly spot areas that may be out of tolerance.
Single scan: shape
Our shape screen displays the top and bottom surfaces of your product and reports each surface’s peak to peak, rugosity and standard deviation. It also displays the overall thickness peak to peak and the shape profile.
Single scan: run chart
The Run Chart displays thickness measurements over time against defined specifications. This allows operators to monitor process stability, detect trends or drift, and confirm that production stays within control boundaries.
3. Recipes
mgOS recipes make it easy for operators to switch seamlessly between configured products. In mgOS, a product is a recipe that links a measuring mode with a material preset and product specifications. Together, these settings determine how the gauge scans and how signals are processed for your material.
Here’s how each setting comes together to simplify your workflows.
Products
- Specifications: thickness, width, or weight tolerances with upper/lower spec limits and optional action limits for alarms and warnings.
- Measuring Mode: scan behavior settings.
- Material Preset: laser and signal interpretation settings.
Each Product is identified by a name or SKU, making it easy to switch between products, track results, and integrate with PLCs.
Measuring modes
- App selection (e.g., Scan Capture, Gauge and Go).
- Scan parameters: start/end position, scan speed, micro-scans.
- Virtual Micrometers: simulate physical micrometers with spacing options and anvil sizes.
- Overrides: motion and averaging parameters that can replace system defaults for mode specific control.
Material presets
- Laser frequency
- Peak and cross-section averaging for smoothing results
- Outlier filtering to remove extreme measurements
- Material thickness offsets and optional
- Material Maps for pass line corrections
4. Warnings and alarms
mgOS continuously monitors system health and measurement quality, giving you a layered alarm framework designed for industrial reliability. With these warnings and alarms, manufacturers can immediately flag, diagnose, and respond to issues before they compound into major losses or bottlenecks.
Each warning and alarm is assigned a unique code and severity level.
Warnings are early indicators of when a parameter approaches its limit, while alarms indicate out-of-spec conditions requiring immediate attention.
Here are the four main types of warning and alarms available through mgOS:
- System Health: Low Disk Space and Invalid System Status Data alarms ensure the gauge operates reliably and logs data safely.
- Laser and Optics: Laser Temperature Alarms/Warnings track thermal stability for both top and bottom lasers. DutyCycle TEC and Scan Power alarms (disabled by default) provide additional insight into laser driver conditions. Glass Cleaning alarms prompt operators to clean top or bottom protective glass, maintaining measurement accuracy.
- Calibration and Reference: No Valid Calibration and Calibration Expired alarms ensure measurement traceability. Correction Scan Expired alarms remind operators when a correction scan must be renewed. Thickness Reference (TR) alarms monitor both height and power for top/bottom references, validating system baselines.
- Measurement Integrity: Probe Separation alarms track sensor positioning stability. Range alarms flag when a product is out of measurable bounds. Signal Quality alarms verify that measurement signals remain above required thresholds.
5. PLC integrations
With mgOS PLC integrations, manufacturers can easily integrate inline thickness monitoring in their lines with bi-directional PLC communication.
Using standard EtherNet/IP protocols, mgOS sends measurement data to your PLC and receives commands in return, ensuring seamless synchronization with your line.
With this, mgOS unlocks the following capabilities:
- Data recording and traceability. Measurement results, product specifications, and system status can be published directly to your PLC, allowing seamless recording into your plant database or MES system.
- Production line integration. mgOS can start and stop scans automatically based on line signals, ensuring measurements are perfectly synchronized with material flow.
- Closed-loop control. Beyond data login, PLC communication can be extended to closed-loop thickness control. By feeding back measurement results, the PLC can make live adjustments to line actuators, maintaining product quality in real time.
- Remote management. PLC integration enables remote product selection, measuring mode changes and material preset control directly from the PLC interface. This reduces manual setup time and ensures consistency across shifts.
To support all of the above, Mate Gauge seamlessly integrates with leading PLCs for bi-directlional communication, including Omron, Profinet, Ethernet/IP, and Mitsubishi Electric.
6. Closed-loop control
Lastly, mgOS allows manufacturers to maintain precision with closed-loop control that adjusts your line in real-time. This is thanks to closed-loop integrations that use thickness measurements to automatically adjust the process in real-time through the line PLC.
Here’s how it works:
Operation
- Thickness data from the gauge is continuously transmitted to the PLC over Ethernet/IP.
- The PLC executes the control logic (commonly PID or incremental step control).
- Actuators such as rolling mills, coaters, or gap adjusters are updated based on this feedback.
- The cycle repeats at defined intervals, maintaining the process near the target specification.
Control parameters
- Feedback type: Overall average, edge position, or multiple-point feedback can be selected depending on process requirements.
- Correction step size: Incremental adjustments are applied to avoid overshoot.
- Loop timing: A configurable delay ensures stability between measurement and correction cycles.
- Limits: Maximum correction values can be set to protect equipment and avoid large step changes.
Transform raw thickness data into actional insights with mgOS
Accurate thickness data is just the starting point in high-yield manufacturing. To turn that data into actionable insights that improve consistency, efficiency, and yield across your lines, you need a complete thickness monitoring system that’s backed by a robust software suite like mgOS.
Built into every Mate Gauge system, mgOS transforms raw thickness data into actionable data that operators and managers can use to keep their lines running smoothly.
Want to learn more about how the Mate Gauge system works, and the difference that mgOS can make on your lines? Contact us today to speak with a Mate Gauge engineer.