The task of illuminating parts for a successful machine vision application has been called by some a science and by others an art. But nearly everyone agrees that correct lighting has a huge impact on the success of any machine vision project.
“At first people refuse to believe that a strange new thing can be done, then they hope it can be done, then they see it can be done-then it is done and the whole world wonders why it was not done centuries ago.”
- frances hodgson burnett, the secret garden.
Vision system integration has come a long way. With increased processing power, more powerful algorithms, and lighting and optics designed for more demanding requirements, more applications can be solved today than ever before.
The term smart camera has been somewhat of a misnomer. It is true that it is a camera, but it has not necessarily been smart. But that is changing as the cameras of the past, which could only work at less than optimal feed speeds and do less than complete image analysis, have evolved into a powerful quality assurance tool.
German beverage industry specialist BBull (Königsbach-Stein, Germany) faced a challenge to inspect tens of thousands of containers an hour. BBull’s high-speed machine vision system Stratec BV 3000W effects an all-around control of labels, tins and bottles.
The DVT 535C entry-level color vision sensor is not limited to a single machine vision function such as color sorting, but can handle a much broader range of applications with a compete set of color tools for sorting, color match and defect detection.
When used with an IR LED illuminator, the CS8620Hi near-IR RS-170 analog camera can achieve detailed surface inspection of superficial irregularities, blemishes or defects not easily observed in the visible spectrum.
Lasiris laser line generators are able to project from three to 99 parallel lines with a high degree of uniformity across the lines. Multiline patterns are compatible with all Lasiris lasers that emit from 375 to 1,550 nanometers.
The BOS 6k miniature-32 by 20 by 12 millimeter-photoelectric sensor enables transparent objects to be identified regardless of shape, color or composition. The new retroreflective sensor’s low hysteresis makes it suited for detecting transparent objects such as glass bottles, test tubes or transparent films in industrial and packaging applications.