Product category:
Vision and scanning systems
News Release from: Cognex UK | Subject: In-Sight 3000 Vision System
Edited by the Manufacturingtalk Editorial
Team on 25 February 2002
Camera system looks for dimples in
engine valves
A vision System is helping an automotive engine valve manufacturer ensure that 'total quality' is maintained in shipments of 21 million engine valves per year.
An In-Sight 3000 Vision System from Cognex is helping TRW Systems in Washington, Tyne and Wear, to ensure 'total quality' in shipments of engine valves to the Isuzu Diesel Engine Manufacturing Plant in Poland Installed only five months ago, the In-Sight system is inspecting valve heads at the end of the production line just prior to final despatch
This article was originally published on Manufacturingtalk on 28 May 2001 at 8.00am (UK)
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Around 19 million car engine valves are being produced by TRW in 2001 and all major car manufacturers are customers.
Next year, production has to rise to 21 million parts, largely as a result of the increasing application of multi-valve technology with many engines containing four and sometimes five valves per cylinder instead of the traditional two.
Two types of valve are manufactured by TRW for Isuzu - inlet valves and exhaust valves.
Further reading
Complex vision technology in an affordable unit
Cognex have introduced the In-Sight 2000, an entirely new type of industrial machine vision sensor at a cost usually associated with "smart cameras"
Vision systems retrofitted like CNC
Special purpose machine tools and assembly systems, with Cognex machine vision systems as an integral part, are being supplied to the automotive industry by Douglas Curtis Machine Tools
Vision system dedicated to electronic production
Cognex has introduced Display Inspect - a machine vision software and hardware package for inspecting displays, keypads, and enclosures on LCD and LED display-based products.
These are dimensionally similar except that the exhaust version has a stellited seat to withstand higher operating temperatures.
Neither are inspected again after leaving TRW and as they go directly into Isuzu's manufacturing line it is imperative that every valve is the right type.
To ensure zero defects in component deliveries, a pokayoke device was required.
Says engineer John 'Ozzy' Byers.
To differentiate the two types of valve, a dimple is embossed into the exhaust valve head.
The dimple is quite small, and slight changes in position on the conveyor make it impossible for a sensor to reliably detect it.
To ensure repeatable and reliable inspections, a vision system is needed.
In-Sight uses PatFind, a revolutionary location tool, which can overcome changes in position, scale (if the valve seat is sitting slightly higher) and image (surface finish varations and reflections).
This means that the In-Sight can quickly and reliably detect the exact position of the valve head, so the presence of the dimple can be determined.
If a wrong valve type is detected the line stops, an alarm sounds and the In-Sight monitor has a message flashed onto it.
Having attended a two day Cognex training course, Ozzy's colleagues Neil Clark and Ian Smith can configure the system using In-Sight's unique 'games console' interface.
Routines are configured using a spreadsheet format using simple commands and libraries of options, making In-Sight the easiest vision system in the world to configure.
Refinements or additions to the programme can also be incorporated easily.
Before arriving at the camera position, valves pass through cleaning and mechanical gauging systems and are then placed into pockets about 150mm apart on a simple conveyor belt.
This carries the valves towards the final inspection station where an operator performs a 100% inspection.
The In-Sight camera is deliberately located at the entry point of this station, for two reasons: firstly, to ensure that all parts reaching final inspection are correct; secondly, to make sure that rejected parts are manually removed from the conveyor before the line continues.
"We have a factory-wide policy of physically handling rejects," explained Ozzy, "because it is more reliable than using an automated system which, paradoxically, carries a risk of rejected parts being allowed through.
The inspector is right there anyway so it is of no real consequence and takes little extra time." If the In-Sight system detects a wrong valve type a signal is sent to the PLC and the line is halted.
At this time the inspector hinges back the camera and removes the rejected part, placing it in a separate receiving tray.
The camera is returned to the upright position and before allowing the line to be re-started, double-checks that there is not a valve in the pocket underneath.
The In-Sight system at TRW is now being used very effectively, and as a replacement for mechanical gauging technology, maintenance costs and functionality are considerably improved.
"The key to the success of the In-Sight vision system is the high performance offered and the fact that costs have come down rapidly.
Systems are also much easier to program." Said Ozzy.
"Having gained experience of In-Sight 3000, I am sure industry will soon recognise more opportunities for the use of automated optical inspection".
COGNEX UK is a subsidiary of COGNEX Corp., a company specialising in design, development, manufacture and marketing of machine vision systems - computers that can "see" - which are used to automate the manufacture of a wide range of products and to assure their quality.
Cognex is the world's leader in the machine vision industry, having shipped to date more than 150,000 machine vision systems, representing over $1 billion in cumulative revenue, since the company's founding in 1981.
Its Modular Vision Systems Division, headquartered in Natick, Massachusetts, specialises in the developments of sophisticated vision software tools and board-level hardware platforms used by manufactures of discrete items around the world.
Cognex's Surface Inspection Systems Division, headquarted in Alameda, California, specialises in turnkey machine vision systems for inspecting the surfaces of products manufactured in continuous processes, such as metals, paper, and plastics.
In addition to its corporate headquarters located in Natick, Massachusetts, Cognex also has regional offices located throughout North America, Japan, Europe, and Southeast Asia. Request a free brochure from Cognex UK ...
(This was Manufacturingtalk's Top Story on 22 February 2002).
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