The following applications indicate the diverse nature to which machine vision technology can be put.
- Cameras sort rice and beans (courtesy Alrad Imaging)
- Custom cameras classify plastic pellets precisely (courtesy Alrad Imaging)
- Vision System Measures Scallops (courtesy Alrad Imaging)
- Inspecting turbine blades in aircraft engines (courtesy Matrox Imaging)
- Vision automates parking surveillance (courtesy Matrox Imaging)
- Vision helps delta robot sort biscuits (courtesy Matrox Imaging)
- Laser Marking and Image-based Industrial ID Reader Save Hundreds of
Thousands of Dollars (courtesy Cognex Corporation)
- Automotive Supplier Achieves Perfect Quality with Low-Cost Machine Vision
(courtesy Cognex Corporation)
- Vision System Prevents Injection Moulding Tool Damage and Improves Part Quality
(courtesy Cognex Corporation)
- Inspection of bandsaw blades made easy (courtesy Alrad Imaging)
Cameras sort rice and beans
(courtesy Alrad Imaging)
A vision system will trigger air-jets at specific points to blast out the unwanted beans or rice, broken beans or rice, or extraneous items such as rocks or bugs. Since rice or beans are a consumable product quality sorting is very important. Accuracy is paramount as no one wants to bite into a rock or consume any bugs. Speed is very important also since large volumes of product must be sorted efficiently.
http://www.alrad.co.uk/imaging/FAQ-ISG%20LightWisecameraforBeansandRice.htm
Custom cameras classify plastic pellets precisely
(courtesy Alrad Imaging)
In the recycling of plastic products, incoming plastic is ground into flakes, washed and dried, and, converted into pellets. These pellets are manufactured by melting the plastic and then extruding and cutting the plastic material into small, uniform pieces. Once manufactured, these plastic pellets must be sorted before they are sold to manufacturers to be made into new products, such as bottles and trash bags.
http://www.alrad.co.uk/imaging/FAQ-%20Custom_cameras_classify_plastic_pellets.html
Vision System Measures Scallops
(courtesy Alrad Imaging)
Between July and August each year, the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Fisheries Service conducts surveys to determine the abundance and size distribution of deep-sea scallops. To do this, sample height measurements from 125,000 scallops are taken from approximately 500 randomly selected locations. To increase the accuracy and speed of these measurements over current methods, William Kramer, an IT specialist at the NOAA Woods Hole Laboratory on Cape Cod, obtained a Pioneer Funding grant from the Chesapeake Bay Trust to develop a prototype machine-vision system.
http://www.alrad.co.uk/imaging/FAQ_Scallops_vision_system.html
Inspecting turbine blades in aircraft engines
(courtesy Matrox Imaging)
Turbines that are housed in aircraft engines are subjected to pretty tough conditions. They must perform at speeds of 30 thousand rpm in temperatures greater than 800ºC for hours at a time.
The engine manufacturers fully understand that even small surface defects can reduce performance, increase maintenance costs, and reduce the useful life of an aircraft engine. They need to inspect turbine blades very carefully to maintain the efficiency and reliability that the air transport industry requires.
One particular North American manufacturer inspected its blades by hand and human eye. The highly-trained inspectors measured hundreds of features and checked for surface defects at depths in the order of thousandths of an inch. Manual inspection was not only costly in terms of time and labour, but subjective as well. Results were variable and even differed between inspectors. Finally, because manual inspection was so time consuming, there was no systematic inspection of every blade; only a sampling of blades was inspected. The manufacturer required an approach that would allow systematic inspections of the blades, save time, and yield consistent and repeatable results.
http://www.matrox.com/imaging/en/press/feature/robot/stress/
Vision automates parking surveillance
(courtesy Matrox Imaging)
Instead of looking on parking fees and fines as a ‘cash cow’, some enlightened cities attempt to balance their needs with those of business owners and residents. Fredericksburg, VA is one city that revolutionized the way it manages parking. By adopting an automated parking system using a vehicle mounted vision system, the city has enjoyed greater revenues, improved efficiency, and far fewer complaints and repeat offenders.
http://www.matrox.com/imaging/en/press/feature/traffic/parking/
Vision helps delta robot sort biscuits
(courtesy Matrox Imaging)
A major European cookie and chocolate maker outputs 30 million packages a year, and they contain over 80 different types of assorted cookies. This manufacturer needed a solution that could support the wide variety of products and a high throughput.
The Astor line of robots was the perfect candidate. The Astor features a vision-guided delta robot that can pick and place 140 units per minute. In this cookie packaging installation, there are eight robot cells on the plant floor that collectively sort 1 120 cookies per minute. Each cell sorts one or two cookie varieties for the package. As the blister tray passes each work cell, the robot stacks three or four cookies in the appropriate section of the blister tray.
http://www.matrox.com/imaging/en/press/feature/packaging/robot/
Laser Marking and Image-based Industrial ID Reader Save Hundreds of Thousands of Dollars
(courtesy Cognex Corporation)
An electronics manufacturer produces thousands of different part numbers of electronic products intermixed on the same assembly line. The difficulty in identifying parts, combined with the fast pace of the line, resulted in a large amount of rework or scrap. The manufacturer had experienced several hundred thousand dollars a year in losses when incorrect parts were added to, and/or the wrong operations were performed, on assemblies. The manufacturer asked Claire Lasers for a solution. The manufacturer developed an application of the company’s ClearMarkä laser marking system that added a motorized platform to move the Cognex DataMan ID reader into position based on the location of the assembly.
http://www.cognex.com/ApplicationsIndustries/SemiconductorApps/default.aspx?id=428
Automotive Supplier Achieves Perfect Quality with Low-Cost Machine Vision
(courtesy Cognex Corporation)
Ice Industries’ Deerfield Manufacturing subsidiary designed and built a welder to add a nut to a stamped metal frame rail. If their customer were to receive a frame rail without a nut, Ice Industries would be subject to substantial penalties including 100% containment and inspection of all product until root cause corrective action has been approved by the customer and implemented by Ice—not to mention the blemish on its quality scores. The traditional approach would have been to have an operator inspect each part for the presence of the nut as the parts are packed. Deerfield management decided to take a look at machine vision. “We have often found the costs of machine vision systems to be prohibitive,” Randall said. “Then one of our engineers found the Cognex Checker® vision sensor on the Internet. Besides the low cost, we liked the fact that Checker is so easy to use…”
http://www.cognex.com/ApplicationsIndustries/IndustryApps/default.aspx?id=72
Vision System Prevents Injection Moulding Tool Damage and Improves Part Quality
(courtesy Cognex Corporation)
At TNT Plastic Molding, located in Anaheim, California, USA, when an injection moulding operation is completed, pins on the movable side of the mould push the part out of the mould. Occasionally, however, a part sticks in the mould. In the past, the operator was responsible for checking the mold after each cycle to ensure the part was removed. Sometimes, the operator did not notice that the part had not been ejected—and the typical result was $14,000 in damage to the mould.
TNT Plastic Molding has overcome this problem by using a mould monitoring system developed by A.S.K. Technologies, Yorba Linda, California, USA, that inspects the mould before it closes to be sure that the part has been ejected. The mould monitoring system utilizes the Cognex In-Sight® vision system, which was trained in minutes simply by taking images of the mould in the proper condition without a part. The vision system now checks the mould for the presence of the part on every cycle, eliminating the risk of damage to the mould. The mould monitoring system has also improved quality by enabling the press to run in automatic mode, which increases cycle time consistency.
http://www.cognex.com/ApplicationsIndustries/TypesOfApplications/default.aspx?id=5784&terms=tnt
Inspection of bandsaw blades
made easy
(courtesy Alrad Imaging)
A leading UK Bandsaw blade manufacturer has utilised a novel adaptation of a standard product for the inspection of the quality of bandsaw blades, while being manufactured. The requirement was to install a vision system to allow operators to easily check the quality of the teeth on bandsaw blades.
The problem was that the blades are produced on a moving belt and the detail of observation that was required meant that the operator could only inspect the teeth quality if the belt was stopped. This obviously was not possible, as this was a continuous production line.
After consultation with Alrad Imaging the client decided to install an electronically shuttered, CCD camera fitted with a Macro lens above the moving belt. The output from the camera is sent to a stand-alone frame grabber box to which is attached a remote timer control. The operator via this remote control is able to freeze the image either manually or automatically at pre-set intervals, to inspect the blades. The resulting video output is sent to a standard video monitor mounted close to where the operator is positioned.
Such a system could be used in many industrial applications on moving belts where just a visual inspection is required, and no saving or further processing of images is needed.
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