Integrated Vision Systems

More about integrated vision systems

What are vision systems?

In essence machine vision and vision systems enables manufacturing equipment to ‘see’ and ‘think’. It is the ability of a machine to consequential sense an object, capture an image of that object and then process and analyse the information for decision making. It is an exciting field that combines technologies and processes to automate complex or mundane visual inspection tasks and precisely guide manufacturing activity. In an industrial context it is often referred to as ‘Industrial Vision’ or ‘Vision Systems’. Machine vision has become a key technology in the area of quality control and inspection in manufacturing. This is due to increasing quality demands and the improvements it offers over and above human vision and manual operation, and the current trend towards Industry 4.0 flexible manufacturing.

What are the operational benefits of integrated vision systems?

For the forward-thinking companies exploiting machine vision and integrated vision systems, there are a number of operational benefits of machine vision, including:

• Increased competitiveness – higher productivity and output.
• Lower costs – Less downtime and waste, increased speed, and error correction. Automatically identify and correct manufacturing problems on-line with machine vision forming part of the factory control network.
• Improved product quality – 100% quality check for maximum product quality.
• Improved brand reputation management – More stringent compliance with industry regulations leading to fewer product recalls and reduced number of complaints.
• Customer complaint handling process improvements – Image archiving and recording throughout the whole process.
• Increased safety – machine vision solutions contribute to a positive, safe working environment.
• Improvements to sustainable working practices – machine vision can improve the use of energy and resources, make material flow smoother, prevent system jams, reduce defects/ waste, and even save on space. It can also help to enable Just in Time processes through tracking and tracing products and components throughout the production process, avoiding component shortages, reducing inventory, and shortening delivery time.
• Higher innovation – Releasing staff from manual, repetitive tasks for higher value work can lead to greater creativity and problem solving.

How does a vision system work?

The components of a vision system include the following basic seven elements.

1. The machine vision process starts with the part or product being inspected.
2. When the part is in the correct place a sensor will trigger the acquisition of the digital image.
3. Lighting is used to ensure that the image captured is of optimum quality.
4. The optic and lens captures the image and sends this to a sensor.
5. Depending on capabilities this digitising sensor may perform some pre-processing to ensure the correct image features stand out.
6. The image is then sent to the processor for analysis against the set of pre-programmed rules.
7. Communication devices are then used to report and trigger automatic events such as part acceptance or rejection.

Although each of these components serves its own individual function and can be found in many other systems, when working together they each have a distinct role to play. To work reliable and generate repeatable results it is important that these critical components interact effectively. Industrial Vision Systems offer fully integrated vision systems to provide hassle free integration for manufacturing companies.