With the increasing degree of automation in automotive production, high demands on the accuracy of fit and completeness of the installed components are the order of the day. This also applies to heat shield components, which have a rather hidden existence in the car, but still have to be manufactured very precisely. In order to ensure the smooth further processing of these components, an OCTUM machine vision system checks the complete and correct assembly and especially the correct geometry of these components at Schröter Metallwarenfabrik GmbH & Co. KG.
The fully automatic inspection is performed with the PC-based OCTUM machine vision system CV600 based on our system software CV_Inspect. For the specific application, only 2 camera views are required to inspect all attachments (clips, rivets, threaded bolts, pins, mounting brackets). The heat shield components are manually placed on a conveyor belt, a template facilitates the reasonably reproducible positioning of the parts on the belt. The conveyor belt automatically advances one cycle at a time and transports the components to the standard inspection cell with the two cameras and lighting. As soon as the part has reached the target position, image acquisition is triggered via Profinet. The cameras look at a specific component view in order to be able to measure and inspect as many attachments as possible. The image acquisition is stationary, the results of the inspection are immediately transmitted to the machine PLC and the IO component is marked by laser marking. NIO parts are automatically ejected and of course not laser marked. So the end customer has the security to process only IO parts.
Each of the cameras locates the part in its image section, tracks the position and checks the presence of the attached parts. In addition, several measurements are carried out for the position-critical attachments so that the 3D position of these attachments can be indirectly recorded. This allows for the immediate detection of deformations or overall deformations and ensures a smooth further processing. With the high camera resolution, even small features can be inspected reliably. The cycle time is <0.5 sec./part. The compact inspection cell with front control elements and ambient light protection of the inspection area can of course be expanded with additional cameras and lighting to inspect more complex parts. The test characteristics are parameterized or learned. Extensive statistical functions facilitate correct parameterization. The inspection area is covered accordingly so that the part feed and continuation is guaranteed, but at the same time an external light shielding takes place.
The application-specific camera and lighting configuration is delivered pre-assembled and tested, thus ensuring fast system installation and commissioning. This standard test cell can easily be adapted for other requirements or extended at a later date. CV_Inspect is a very powerful, parameterisable system software with a practical range of functions that can measure, inspect, read codes and characters reliably.