High-Speed Machine Vision and Acoustical Crack Detection System

Impetus to Invent

Requiring 180 parts per minute and numerous inspections amidst today’s labor troubles, what else can you do but automate? Invent Automation automated this medical parts line from start to finish, doubling the customer’s capacity while greatly improving their ability to catch defects. Sophisticated inspection processes were used, from $50k acoustical hammers to detect cracks by knocking the part and listening, to complex machine vision algorithms to identify various defects. Invent Automation was up to the task.

Problem Solved

Labor reduction and improved inspection capabilities

Lessons Learned

Flipping the parts in an elegant and simple way using gravity was a very effective method to achieve this goal.

What Was Unique 

Using acoustics is a great way to detect cracks in parts at high speed. Imagine how a bell sounds with and without a crack, and you get the idea. Instead of using your ears, you need a $10,000 microphone and hammer setup

What Was Challenging

Finding a diffuse background sensor that could detect the 1/8” tall parts was a challenge, but Baumer had just what we needed after some testing