Product category:
Vision and scanning systems
News Release from: Cognex UK | Subject: In-Sight 1000 vision systems
Edited by the Manufacturingtalk Editorial
Team on 24 September 2003
Machine vision offers 100% quality
checks
Machine vision system replaces manual vision practices used in a high speed fuel injection production line, carrying out 100% checks in 9sec.
Cognex, the world's leading supplier of machine vision systems, announced today that Dinalot, a sub-contractor for the motor industry, has integrated Cognex's In-Sight 1000 vision systems into a high speed fuel injection production line Dinalot, a Spanish company, constructs small metallic machine parts for the motor industry
This article was originally published on Manufacturingtalk on 28 May 2001 at 8.00am (UK)
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The parts to be inspected are machined metal disks featuring 6 tapped and countersunk holes.
Dinalot manufactures five different versions of these parts.
The checks made by the Cognex machine vision system include measuring the diameter of the holes and also their position with respect to each of other and relative to a central positioning notch.
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.
All of these checks were previously carried out manually by an operator and because of the high degree of precision required, the measurements used to take a long time.
The checking itself, which involved selective sampling, had the disadvantage of letting through many non-compliant parts.
After studying the production conditions, Ikusmen Vision Artificial,a Cognex integrator partner, put in place a solution that was capable of carrying out the necessary measurements and checks on all manufactured parts whilst at the same time satisfying the key precision, production speed and cost requirements.
The solution - the system comprises two Cognex In-Sight 1000 vision sensors, an XY Cartesian robot and a rack-mounted industrial PC.
The PC is used to control the vision sensors and the robot, and to display the current vision inspection image and the measurement results.
It is also used at the application tuning stage to configure the two sensors and to indicate which version of the product is to be checked.
Assembly - the In-Sight sensors are mounted on a robot arm as shown in Figure 1.
The first In-Sight sensor, mounted vertically above the parts to be inspected, is used to check the position and diameter of the holes.
The second In-Sight sensor, mounted at a specific angle, looks inside the holes to check the threading.
The horizontal control surface is fitted with LED backlighting manufactured by Cognex.
Control process - the parts arrive at the inspection station after passing through a cleaning bath.
The robot picks up the part to be inspected and places it on the control surface.
The first In-Sight sensor initially locates the central notch on the part and then calculates its position.
Next, the robot moves the camera so that it is above the nominal position of each hole.
The vision sensor then calculates the angle of each hole relative to the central notch and measures their diameters.
All these measurements are carried out to a level of precision of +/-0.02mm for the diameters and +/-0.1degrees for the angles.
The second In-Sight sensor is then positioned by the robot so that it can inspect the inside of each hole and measure the number of threads and the width of the grooves, thereby checking the quality of the threading.
Once these checks are complete, the robot places good parts on a stacking device and the failed parts in a discard container.
Advantages -the entire operation takes only 9 seconds, which means that every part produced by Dinalot can be inspected even for all five different production models.
It also ensures that no faulty parts will ever find their way to the end customer.
Thanks to the Ikusmen solution, it has also been possible to automate the "palletisation" of the manufactured parts.
The vision system data obtained during the control process has also allowed Dinalot to refine its machining process. Request a free brochure from Cognex UK ...
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