Folder manufacturer upgrades to 100 per cent inspection with Leuze machine vision system – proCHECK

Citation

(2004), "Folder manufacturer upgrades to 100 per cent inspection with Leuze machine vision system – proCHECK", Sensor Review, Vol. 24 No. 1. https://doi.org/10.1108/sr.2004.08724aaf.004

Folder manufacturer upgrades to 100 per cent inspection with Leuze machine vision system – proCHECK

Folder manufacturer upgrades to 100 per cent inspection with Leuze machine vision system – proCHECK

Keywords: Machine vision, Inspection

With the introduction of a Leuze proCHECK machine vision system to its production lines, German plastic folder manufacturer Widmann Welding Machine has been able, for the first time to implement 100 per cent inspection – a major advance over its previous random sampling operation. It is now more confident that products of the highest quality leave its premises (Plate 4).

Plate 4 The Leuze proCHECK machine vision system enables 100 per cent inspection of folder production for first time

The efficiency of the Leuze image processing system is particularly obvious when looking at how the humble plastics wallet is constructed – its manufacture and hence quality of weld taken for granted. The required inspection parameters are just as many-sided as are the formats in which the helpful office clear plastic folders are offered. An advantage of the proCHECK image processing system is that it can be parameterised so fast that often changing inspection parameters are no longer an obstacle to 100 per cent inspection with the aim of zero fault production.

At Widmann the inspection process had to look at:

• •

  welded longitudinal and transversal seams,

• •

  the position of welded longitudinal and transversal seams relative to their one exercise-book perforation,

• •

  the positioning of the white paper insert stripe at the edge area of the foil,

• •

  the position of the imprinted company logo, and

• •

  the print quality of the logo.

Each production line at Widmann is designed to handle a variety of formats with manufacturing throughputs up to 450 items/min in different ranks or lot sizes. This flexible manufacturing required high levels of investment in terms of skilled inspectors, even to implement just random sampling. It highlights one of the frailties of flexible production lines, which, in their own right display strength by the fact that they can easily be adapted to new formats or products but do not easily allow economical 100 per cent inspection of manufactured parts, until now.

At present, the welded foils are checked as endless material before separation into individual items. The inspection is carried out on two lines with the image processing system proCHECK which includes a Pentium-based industry-type personal computer, two black and white cameras, flashlights and the CVT software module. Both production lines run at 450 items/min, each producing an individual control signal for “good”, “warning” or “bad” quality evaluation. The transmission of the signals is carried out by Interbus S to the master plc.

The key towards achieving zero fault production

A distinct advantage of the Leuze proCHECK system is that several lines can be monitored with only a single system, whilst still allowing the tolerance features and inspection criteria for each line to be set individually.

The Leuze proCHECK image processing system is an industrial standard MACHINE VISION system utilising high-speed cameras allowing up to 60 inspections/s, well in excess of the 450 folders produced every minute at Widmann. It has been developed as a modular structured PC-based system and is configured using powerful Windows based software. It enables up to nine cameras to be used in individually tailored processes – for stand alone inspection through to managing complete production lines. It has the capability to integrate bar code readers, scales, labellers, boxing units and control systems to create a fully integrated detection and inspection facility.

The major benefit to Widmann of installing proCHECK was that it enabled 100 per cent inspection to be achieved for the very first time. The most obvious result of this quality assurance measure is the drastic reduction in the number of faulty products.

Should they decide to expand their production facilities they are already well equipped to handle new inspection tasks since the proCHECK system can be expanded to work with up to 12 cameras – black and white, colour or mega-pixel cameras to suit individual requirements.

For further information, please contact: Fiona Morgan, Leuze Mayser Electronic Limited, Generation Business Park, Barford Road, St Neots, Cambs PE19 6YQ. Tel: 01480 408500; Fax: 01480 403808; E-mail: mail@leuzemayser.co.uk, Web site: www.leuzemayser.co.uk