Computer Aided Visual Inspection

[Eximius2286]

I recently went to the Rockwell Automation Fair and was sparked with an idea to bridge a gap in our inspection process. I saw they had camera's being used to perform visual inspection of parts. We have some wire harness' that can't be electrically tested because there is no mating connector available. As a result the wiring is left to 100% visual inspection by an inspector. I'm looking for a solution for visual inspection of the wires plugged into the connector.

Does anyone know of any system's that might be able to visual inspect like this?

 

[Miner]

The camera demonstrated at Automation Fair was probably from Zebra Technologies as they are a Technology Partner with Rockwell Automation. I also recommend investigating Cognex and Bluewrist solutions. All claim to have automated solutions for wiring harness/connector inspection.

 

[Eximius2286]

Thank you for the reply, you've pointed me in the right direction!

 

[Renea Koski QAM]

You may also be interested in a company called Keyence. They have incredible optical comparator selections!
We love ours. We program what a part's dimensions/tolerances should be and then you place your parts under the lens and the machine inspects it to the stored specs. You can save, sort and print reports!

KEYENCE CORPORATION OF AMERICA

Sensors, machine vision systems, measuring instruments, barcode readers, PLCs and other factory automation sensor products. KEYENCE America.

www.keyence.com

 

[nickwarren]

AOI is widely used in electronics manufacturing. There probably are some options in this domain to accomplish what you're looking for. I found one academic publication, "Automatic Optical Inspection System for wiring harness using Computer Vision"

 

[MorganC]

We have used Cognex and Keyence allot and they are both really good.
The Keyance that we have is easily programable for most relatively simple applications, its basically a supercharged digital microscope.
The Cognex we are using is mostly just the hardware and we are learning how to program it from the ground up. It seems like this will in the end be much more powerful since we are going to be able to use Machine Learning to teach the camera how to detect very hard to find defects on airfoils.

Also both company's have Reps that will work with you to find the right product. However Keyance sent someone to us for a Demo so we could get hands on with the product. I am not sure if Cognex does anything like that.