Page 60 - Plastics News July 2023

TECHNOLOGY

Optimax looks to overcome the challenges of inspecting highly reflective
moving parts

nario, and proprietary anti-reflection
(AR) techniques need to be applied.
These techniques require the genera-
tion of multiple images using different
directional lighting modules. These
images are then fused together to
create a single, reflection-free image.
According to the company, due to
the inherently complex nature of this
process, most existing AR techniques
do not perform robustly enough for
actual deployment on a production
floor.
The challenge is compounded when
uality assurance (QA) is an es- In numerous manufacturing facilities,
Qsential step of every manufac- the parts and modules produced are the parts are in motion. In many cas-
turing process — by ensuring parts made of materials that are highly re- es, highly reflective parts are moving
are made to specifications, manufac- flective, such as metals or plastics. Ex- through the required inspection sta-
turers can avoid the notorious costs amples include metallic parts just out tion and cannot be stopped to enable
associated with defective products. of the forging or machining process, stationary inspection. Until recently,
However, inspecting highly reflective coated printed circuit boards (PCBs) it was considered impossible to fuse
moving parts has historically been on electronics manufacturing lines, or together multiple images where the
challenging for traditional machine metallic elements assembled in me- part has a different location and spa-
vision solutions, meaning automated chanical assembly lines. tial orientation in each image. How-
QA was not an option, it is claimed Reflective objects create a challenge ever, a solution is now available.
that the Inspekto S70 overcomes for visual quality inspection since light The solution — a technological break-
these issues. reflected towards the camera often through
The process of visual quality inspec- causes image saturation and loss of Inspekto has solved this problem by
tion can generally be divided into details. High dynamic range (HDR) is leveraging several new developments
three consecutive steps — image ac- a common methodology used to re- to create a unique, patent-pending AR
quisition, which refers to the process duce reflections in an image. This is a technology.
of acquiring a high-quality image of technique used to reproduce a great- The first is its Autonomous Machine
the item to be inspected; part recog- er dynamic range of luminosity than Vision AI (AMV-AI) technology, con-
nition, where the inspection system is traditionally possible with standard taining three AI-based engines work-
recognises that the acquired image digital imaging or photographic tech- ing in tandem. The first of the three
contains the part to inspect; and final- niques. engines is the Acquisition AI engine,
ly part inspection, which is the analysis However, a significantly bigger chal- a unique AI technology created to
done to establish whether the part is lenge is when the light source is an adapt the parameters of an electro-
good or defected. When parts made embedded lighting module, which is optics system to a specific use-case, in
of highly reflective material are mov- part of the inspection system, with an real time. The second engine recog-
ing, for example on a conveyor belt, illumination path that is parallel to the nises the part to be inspected, while
the image acquisition step becomes camera’s line of sight (LOS). In these the third determines whether it is
particularly challenging for machine cases, the likelihood of back reflection good or defected by comparing it to
vision systems. and its intensity increases. the characteristics of a perfect part,
The challenge—reflective and moving HDR is far from adequate in this sce- memorised during the initial set up
process.

60 PLASTICS NEWS July 2023