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Quality, efficiency and productivity are critical for every factory function regarding profitable manufacturing. In nearly every industry, innovative automated vision inspection technology is helping factories improve in those three areas.
The benefits of vision inspection systems are becoming increasingly known. When properly integrated, these systems keep production flowing seamlessly with high-speed digital precision. The ability of machines, robots and autonomous systems to view, detect and interpret images is called machine vision. This enables automated product quality inspection on the production line, in the warehouse and at the distribution center. Quickly identifying flawed parts throughout production results in greater throughput and a better finished product.
Quality-control processes are no longer a cumbersome offline task at the end of the line.
Manufacturers implement machine vision systems to:
- Reduce customer complaints and returns.
- Inspect every part, every time.
- Decrease labor costs.
- Eliminate bottlenecks.
- Increase machine throughput and uptime.
- Receive valuable data for process improvement and control.
Machine vision’s assembly of systems is responsible for processing and assessing the images taken.
Comprising computer hardware, software algorithms and electronic components, these systems offer operational guidance by generating data that one can use to control and inspect a product or material.
Machine vision entails the following four processes: identification, measurement, position and guidance, and quality inspection.
1. Machine Vision Identification
Machine vision identification systems play a crucial role in part and product identification by detecting unique patterns, direct part marks, barcodes and data codes on labels, packages and parts based on their shape, color or size. The unique marking carries data on the product’s name, date code, manufacturer, expiration date and lot number.
Barcode Reading. A barcode is encoded information printed on a part, label, or directly marked on a package or part of a product with a machine-readable visual pattern. Manufacturers can use barcode reading to track and identify items either from the start to the end of an assembly line or from a logistics facility to its final destination.
Artificial Intelligence (AI). Deep learning and AI technologies teach vision systems, machines and robots to simulate what humans can do to identify images and perform various roles in a production line.
Pattern Recognition and Matching. Pattern matching and pattern recognition extract information from a video or image to provide motion analysis, detect errors, measure objects, count, or compare an image’s unique color, size, pattern and shape with a target image.
Optical Character Verification (OCV). Optical character verification measures the similarity between a text character and an image. Text quality inspection identifies text errors by comparing it against the expected text string for the field.
Optical Character Recognition (OCR). Optical character recognition converts images and reads the text within the image.
2. Measurement with Machine Vision
Dimension measurement is a subset of vision inspection. It is critical in determining whether products or components have been assembled per manufacturing specifications. A vision system for measurement calculates the ranges between at least two points on a product and identifies whether the measurements meet the required specifications. If they do not, the system will send a fail message to the controller, activating a reject process that will eject the item from the queue.
Equipment inspection for predictive maintenance and process control may also be incorporated into this type of machine vision application. In practice, a camera (fixed mount) takes images of components as they pass into view. System software then calculates distances between image points. Measuring via image processing aids in overcoming the challenges associated with traditional jig-based measurement approaches.
Image processing provides the following advantages:
- Measuring different section dimensions is easy.
- Costs are reduced while ensuring product quality.
- Data is stored for information quality management.
- Quick inspections increase output.
Measuring component and product dimensions in-line may reduce inspection time significantly. Systems for image processing accelerate screening and increase productivity. Machine vision and automation make it possible to inspect every product, every time.
3. Vision Inspection Position & Guidance
Guidance helps manufacturers create more than one product using the same production line. As a result, manufacturers avoid manually positioning parts, saving time and money.
Machine vision guidance determines a part’s position and orientation in 2D or 3D space, ensuring the part is at the correct angle. The robot or machine controller can quickly locate the part or machine and align it with the required specifications.
Fast and precise, vision positioning ensures that all workpieces function accurately, leading to proper factory automation. Applications for machine vision positioning as part of manufacturing processes include glass substrate positioning, measuring and correcting misalignments of barcodes or labels, checking for misaligned lids (especially on food containers) and controlling the position of vision-guided robots.
For many manufacturers, position and guidance applications are especially helpful in repetitive tasks or high-risk manufacturing spaces.
4. Quality Inspection with Machine Vision
Quality inspections are essential in a highly competitive market. Customer happiness, loyalty, future contracts, and revenue will all suffer from subpar or variable product quality.
But finding efficient ways to check quality can be difficult. Manual inspections take a lot of time and frequently only cover a tiny portion of a run. Inspectors might not always carry out their checks regularly.
Often, people are asked to do the impossible task of inspecting product moving quickly down a manufacturing line. Studies show that humans are less than 87% effective at this task, whereas machine vision solutions can easily keep up and provide 99% or better inspection results.
Why Machine Vision?
Machine vision is crucial to any factory. With these accurate systems in place, businesses can avoid incurring expenses associated with manual monitoring. Machine vision ensures optimum factory operations and aims to achieve core functions on the manufacturing floor.
Whether inspecting barcodes, small parts or intricate products, machine vision solutions can increase uptime, quality and ROI. Choosing a qualified machine vision specialist for your inspection application is vital to the proper design, product selection, installation and training needed to keep your manufacturing line running efficiently while improving product quality.
