Automated Vision Inspection systems for automated, precise and gentle inspection

Automatically testing sensitive components is challenging: precise part detection is necessary for the robots to sensitively handle the parts, regardless of whether they are fed into the test system in bulk or in blisters. Any errors in the position of the parts must be reliably detected by the vision system. Many very delicate parts also present further challenges for the inspection process itself. For example, it is often not possible to place the parts in front of the camera at the optimal angle on a standardized system with an inclined plane or a glass plate. Here, the testing expertise of the specialists from Kistler comes into play. They have made it their business to find creative solutions to meet the specific requirements of the parts. Kistler has now developed and built several fully automated machine vision inspection systems for the quality inspection of such sensitive parts, and has put them into operation for users in the automotive, electronics and household appliance industries.

One of these vision inspection systems checks very delicate plastic connectors. While the electrical functionality is checked by hand, the system performs the optical inspection for dimensional accuracy and surface defects. To do this, employees place the components in blisters, which they then stack on a trolley and move into the system. The system then feeds the blisters individually to a camera-controlled, high-precision pick-and-place robot that recognizes the delicate parts, removes them from the blister with pinpoint accuracy and inserts them into the inspection matrix. While the robot moves on to the next test object, the part undergoes a total of three optical quality inspections. The system checks seven parameters with an accuracy of 0.005 millimeters. The inspected good parts are then marked before they are placed back in the blister by the pick-and-place robot; bad parts are sorted out automatically. To prevent the inadvertent use of the bad parts, the system destroys them. However complex the process may appear, the cycle time for testing a part is impressive: Depending on the complexity of the parts and the inspection requirements, such a system can achieve a cycle time of two seconds.

Automated optical inspection systems – Kistler expands its portfolio

The new systems are based on Kistler's long-established solutions for the automated optical testing of mass-produced and serial parts, as well as on the company's many years of experience in automation technology. In addition to largely standardized vision inspection systems such as the KVC 121, 621 or 821, the measurement technology expert offers customized optical inspection systems that can operate either as stand-alone units or integrated into the production line. Additional modules can be added as needed. These include, for example, automated laser marking of tested parts.

“With our new developments, we are making Kistler's optical inspection technology usable for very sensitive parts,” explains Klaus Hoffmann, Business Driver in the Vision Inspection & Automated Solutions division at Kistler. “Our ability to now integrate precise and gentle part separation using a robot arm in our optical inspection systems in-house opens up new possibilities. We can provide even better support for customers with very strict requirements and extremely delicate parts in the area of quality control. Decades of experience in optical quality inspection and in-house expertise in automated parts handling enable us to find innovative solutions for special requirements that involve unusual or very delicate test parts. Thanks to the modular concept, we offer our customers individual, economical inspection systems for optical quality assurance with comparatively short development times.”