Abstract: A method for treating a substrate having a layer or coating of material thereon (such as for example a metal conductor coated with an insulating ‘enamel’) comprises the steps of directing a pulsed beam of laser radiation at the substrate to cause an interaction or adjacent the interface between the layer or coating and the substrate, leading to local separation of the layer or coating. The removal is effected by creating an interaction effect at the interface between the substrate and the layer or coating to create an effect similar to a shockwave which causes local separation of the layer or coating at the interface.

Abstract: The contrast determination apparatus includes illuminating light sources (12) and an image sensor (26) i.e. a 2-D CCD for capturing a two-dimensional image of e.g. a marked wire (32) on a holder (34), the captured image being sampled over the mark and the background. The sensor includes an optical system (28,30) selected with regard to the character size of the marks so that the field of view of the sensor is sufficient to contain a complete character as well as a generous amount of background. An area of the captured image is designated in which the samples for contrast measurement are to be taken, and a processor (24) takes the pixel values from the image which are thresholded to categorise them as “black”, or “white”, thus forming a two-tone image.

Abstract: In a coiling apparatus for measuring cutting and optionally marking a succession of lengths of an elongate flexible such as wire or cable, the leading edge of each of the elements are clamped in the same angular position in a rotary coiling assembly.