Charakteristik Wheels-Inspector - Divisoft Automation & Vision Technologies

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Charakteristik WHEELS-INSPECTOR



WHEELS-INSPECTOR is an automatic inspection system able to analyze in its various configurations nearly all possible defects appearing on steel and alloy wheels.

• Product handling
  

Thanks to the special centring and manipulation servo controlled system, the wheel can be lifted, rotated, inspected and repositioned within few seconds.

To avoid any pressure from the centring system, that can potentially aesthetically ruin the wheel during the centring and inspection phase,  the centring devices have been planned and realized with plastic materials but at the same time not subject to worn. The closing pressure of the centring devices is moreover electronically autolimited.

The basic system is equipped with an automation fully servo controlled for the automatic centring, rotation and lifting of wheels with diameter from 12" to 17" and height from 3½ " to 8".
However, since there are no particular limits to our applied technology, Wheels-Inspector can be supplied upon request with the possibility to check wheels of greater dimensions also.

• Analysis of faults
  

On the standard or basic version of Wheels-Inspector an artificial vision system, made of three high resolution progressive scan cameras and three lighting system at variable intensity electronically controlled, is included.

Images acquisition during wheels lifting and rotation occurs simultaneously and in a dynamic way by means of the three cameras. Each camera can detect characteristics or faults on external, lateral, and internal parts of the wheel.

The upper camera acquires images for the analysis of the edge, shape, eventual marking, casting faults (for ex. burs, pore etc.), painting (for ex. drippings, scratches, porosity etc.) or dents. In case this control should be carried out on alloy wheels, according to the shape and dimensions complexity, more fixed or remote controlled cameras can be added.

The lateral camera controls the faults presence of faults on the throat, or according to the application, also the presence of labels, carrying out in real time the comparison with the production data and the data marked on the wheel.

The camera inside the wheel, in case of steel wheels, acquires images of the weldings, while in case of alloy wheels, the analysis mainly concern the casting faults or other workings.

The weldings analysis is a particularly complex and expensive procedure in terms of cycle times. Therefore, the algorithms realized and implemented by Divisoft have been optimized in order to carry out the analysis on the weldings totality inside the wheel in a t/c of approx. 800 milliseconds, allowing this way to carry out the entire wheel analysis in a t/c of approx. 6 seconds.

• Inspection system characteristics
  

The inspection system is managed from an industrial computer supported by a PLC with digital input / output and servo controllers for the handling management.

The Computer is controlled by the Windows XP Embedded operating system with the optional possibility, if requested, to implement the Hard Real Time functionalities of the VentureCom. The communication with the external environment is assured by two Ethernet ports and three configurable RS-232/RS 485 serial ports. All the used Hardware components, from the processor working with Centrino technology, up to the Flash-Disk data support, satisfy the high standards demanded from the industrial environments.
The WHEELS-INSPECTOR within its multiple functions, allows to insert tolerances and thresholds parameters for every value to control, to store series or sample images in a data banking with all the detected faults in order to facilitate the traceability of the product and to set the automatic learning functions.

The PLC (standard type Omron CJM, but upon request, also Siemens B&R or A&B) is directly connected to the PC which beyond all the servo motor handling, when the machine is inserted in a production line, also controls all the communications with the external environment.

Operating interface or MMI is controlled through a touch panel type 15" TFT TouchScreen with IP65 protection.

For technical support, maintenance or software updating, all the inspection system can be remote controlled through a modem directly connected to the telephone line or through Internet if connected to the net.