Today’s manufacturers use machine vision to improve product quality, reduce waste, and ultimately increase ROI. Machine vision systems also supply unparalleled data and insights to the production process itself and are proven versatile tools for manufacturing automation.
Manufacturers are adopting machine vision systems to give them a strategic, business advantage. These systems include data analytics and visualization features that help with process improvement, product quality, and yield maximization. Other applications of this data include creating and validating models for predictive maintenance, a key development in contemporary manufacturing.
For real-time quality control, quick and precise machine vision systems offer nearly 100% product inspection with low false-failure rates.
Manual inspections are unclear, cumbersome, and erroneous, whereas incredibly powerful machine vision systems frequently operate in real time and swiftly spot and address product or process flaws.
A machine vision inspection system is highly customizable. A mounted camera or sensor is typically the main component, but a machine vision system uses an array of technologies depending on the complexity of the inspected product, the manufacturing process itself, or the manufacturer’s needs.
To examine digital images of a product, technologies like digital imaging, lighting, optics, image processing, and programmable logic controllers (PLCs) are used. The inspection measures’ established thresholds serve as the foundation for this qualitative analysis. The obtained images are processed using computer vision techniques. These systems can be anything from palm-sized smart cameras to massive multi-station inspection cells with electromechanical actuators, conveyors, and robots for handling parts. Large systems use imaging-sensor technologies across the spectrum to carry out complex checks.
Machine vision systems automate various industrial processes such as identification (barcode, sortation, readables, or labels), measurement, position and guidance, and quality control.
Before the product exits the plant, anything non-compliant is automatically separated and isolated using the data produced by these technologies. The inspection data can be further examined alongside the non-compliant products to spot process flaws, including broken equipment, poor process parameter setup, or the introduction of foreign materials.
Machine vision systems can significantly improve the productivity of modern manufacturing. These systems can be used at every level of production across a wide range of industries, acting as hubs that produce rich data to aid executives, production managers, manufacturing engineers, and quality engineers in improving product and automation processes.
See the latest article, “Machine Vision: An Industry 4.0 Driver,” in Efficient Plant Magazine to learn more about what machine vision is and how manufacturers are leveraging this technology as a competitive advantage.
Motion Ai has the answers to your machine vision and automation questions.