Tesis
The Group of Vision Specialists at Tesis IT & Automation developed and installed an artificial vision system, using a laser profilometer to detect defects in a steel sheet, in a welded pipe production plant.
Situation:
The client requested to detect defects in a metal sheet, which is the material of a production line, and which is in continuous movement at high speed, with an accuracy of 0.02 inches.
Solution:
By using an external encoder, the application is synchronized with the speed of the production line and allows obtaining the position of each defect found.
This information is later used for operators to review certain areas of the sheet and is used to track the product.
The architecture consisted of an Industrial pc type computer located in the area and a profilometer that transmits the readings via Ethernet cable to the computer.
The information is processed in real time through a Development carried out in Visual Studio and if a possible defect is found, this data is sent to the controller of the line
Challenge:
Line speed of 200ft / min allowed minimal exposure time.
It was required to filter the existing noise due to the mechanical movement of the material in the line at those speeds.
An application had to be developed that would make it possible to determine whether the sheet was suitable or not in terms of quality and reduce the quantity of the final product rejected.
A software filter had to be developed to avoid false positives
Results:
- With the implementation of this System, material rejected due to quality problems was significantly reduced.
- Cycle time was optimized, because validation by an operator is no longer required.
- The System allows traceability or monitoring of the final products, in this case: welded pipe.