The following applications indicate the diverse nature to which machine vision technology
can be put.
- 360° view provides extremely fast surface check (Courtesy of Cognex Corporation)
- Vision sensor helps automate high-speed leading of transparent cartons (courtesy of Cognex Corporation)
- 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)
360° view provides extremely fast surface check
(Courtesy of Cognex Corporation)
In a strained economic situation, it is more important than ever to be able to optimise processes and make them more efficient. The Expert ETK inspection system, integrated with Cognex OmniView® technology, combines many different quality control requirements into just one compact system.
There have been two key challenges to implementing machine vision to aid in the quality control of labels on cylindrical objects. First, vision systems require the bottles be consistently aligned within the labelling machine, and second, labelling machines offer unfavourable ambient conditions and lack appropriate space within to contain the vision system. But now, the innovative OmniView vision technology from Cognex integrated in the Expert ETK inspection system from Syscona Kontrollsysteme and Weber Systemtechnik has a 360° complete view of the bottle surface which provides new potential for the inspection of bottle features with much greater reliability.
Expert ETK creates better inspection conditions
Industrial bottle-labelling facilities are not kind places and inspection technologies have always been required to make individual checks inside labelling machines. Heat, moisture, and label glue place vision systems under severe strain and there is less space available, as production facilities become smaller.
The answer is to take quality control out of the labelling machine. Expert ETK makes this possible. The checks are made outside the labelling machine as the non-aligned bottle travels freely along the line. The result is a complete inspection of all bottle features with maximum identification reliability and maximum flexibility.
Syscona Kontrollsysteme http://www.cognex.com/ApplicationsIndustries/IndustryApps/default.aspx?id=404&langtype=2057
Vision Sensor helps automate high-speed loading of transparent cartons
(Courtest of Cognex Corporation)
A major beverage manufacturer uses transparent cartons to package its bottled drinks so that their distinctive branded labels are visible to consumers. However, the need to orient the bottles so that the right part of the label is visible makes automated packaging a challenge. In the past, bottles were filled on an automated line, and a team of 15 people were tasked with manually loading and orienting the bottles into the transparent cartons. Recently, this beverage producer became the first to successfully automate high-speed carton loading with the use of a bucket autoload cartoner from AFA Nordale Packaging Systems, which uses Cognex Checker® vision sensors to orient the bottles before they are placed in the cartons.
The cartoner orients the bottles by simultaneously spinning 14 bottles while 14 Cognex Checker 3G1 vision sensors view each bottle’s label. The Checker vision sensors then send a signal to stop spinning each individual bottle as soon as they see a letter that indicates the label is in the correct position. A cylinder in the orienter then lifts the bottle off the belt.
During machine validation, the orienter demonstrated the ability to position the labels within +/- 14% of dead centre, well within the +/- 30% requirement of the bottle manufacturer. The success rate in orienting the conveyors is 99.9%.
http://www.cognex.com/ApplicationsIndustries/TypesOfApplications/default.aspx?id=78
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.
|
