Studies show that even today there are still situations where less than 10% of all powder coatings determine the layer thickness before the product is put into the baking/drying oven. Apart from the layer thickness to be applied, there are many external factors that cannot be fully controlled. These include, but are not limited to, the constituents of the powder coating itself, the ageing of wearing parts and the moisture content. For otherwise stable parameters, the coating thickness may also vary more than 50%. In the classic sense, the only way to prevent the film thickness from being too thin is to apply more than is necessary.

If the layer thickness is measured immediately after the coating is applied, the desired layer thickness can be achieved more accurately and the necessary changes can be made quickly. In practice, this can save up to 30% of powder coating.

So far, several providers of non-contact layer thickness gauges often fail due to the high quality requirements in the industries. The requirements include a high tolerance in handling, to ensure fast measurement results and to be able to obtain results from moving parts, as well as allowing accurate reference measurement after the furnace.