This work actually began in 1985 while in the position of Manager of Winding Development at Beloit R&D where I recognized the need to develop a means of accurately measuring the fundamental roll structure variables of stress and strain during winding for production quality control, as well as the possible closed-loop control of the entire winding process. The need for such a measurement became even more apparent when I developed a consistent means of evaluating the resolution of roll structure measurements that were based on different quantities such as hardness, tension and density. The resolution evaluation was based on the number of measurements required to discern a known change in roll structure to a specified statistical confidence. The outcome of an extensive series of tests showed that all current methods were unreliable, but the density analyzer faired better than most and had the additional advantage that it was inherently capable of automated online measurements.Mechanical Engineerin
