几年前，珠电子(a division of Bead Industries), an interconnect pin manufacturer based in Milford, Conn., collaborated with an automotive electronics manufacturing services company to develop a high-performance interconnect pin for use in automotive actuator control systems. This interconnect pin was released by Bead as the True Grip Tandem Pin. According to Bead, the pin’s flanged design offers “superior rigidity, alignment and electrical conductivity while requiring less solder.”
One of Bead’s biggest production issues with this pin was ensuring that each of the tens-of-millions of pins produced on Bead’s machines meet all specifications. The pins, each measuring only .040” diameter x .472" in length, are manufactured tip-to-tail in a continuous chain at 350 pieces per minute. The chain of pins produced in Bead’s production operations is rolled onto large reels that are shipped to customers.
Needless to say, relying on manual quality inspections on such a small product at such high production speeds left a lot of room for improvement.
虽然没有珠子的客户需要100cent inspection, Kevin Mayer, Bead’s plant manager, realized that for Bead to have total confidence in its products, it would need an in-process, high-speed vision inspection system that could measure multiple dimensions on every pin and store the data.
Following thorough research of available vision inspection systems, Bead choseTeledyne Dalsa的VA61视觉控制器，Genie Cameras和Sherlock软件。珠子使用这种技术包装来验证销钉法兰的直径，厚度和长度，并测量每个引脚出现时的总长度。
In Bead’s application, Mayer says the VA61 compact vision controller was interfaced with Genie gigabit Ethernet cameras installed on each of the three machines used to produce the interconnect pins. Dalsa’s Sherlock software, which runs on the vision controllers, allows operators to get the system up and running, while the software’s suite of tools enables the capture of precise measurements and helps identify trends that could lead to non-conformances.
“The Sherlock software was more user-friendly than any of the other programs we looked at,” Mayer said. Because of its flexibility and ease of use, he says Bead can program its vision inspection stations for inspection of components other than the interconnect pins. They can also move the system to other machines as the company’s production schedule requires.
Each vision inspection station is networked to Bead’s database, providing traceability to the day, hour and minute of production. This granular data is used not only for analysis of raw dimensional data, but to provide insight into process variables such as tool wear. Mayer says that Bead uses this data to analyze production trends, predict tool life, and proactively schedule tool changes and other preventive maintenance. “This has improved our efficiency tremendously, since we can prepare for and schedule tool changes rather than having to react to a potentially catastrophic tool failure,” he says.
Since installing the Dalsa machine vision systems in 2008, Bead has achieved 100 percent inspection of each of the 50+ million pins produced to date, helping the company avoid costly product returns.
梅耶说：“我们现在的目标是在工厂的每台机器上都有一个视觉系统，以便我们可以为所有产品提供100％的检查。”
