The machine vision professional gains a new tool with SWIR.
Short wave infrared (SWIR) machine vision imaging is a key tool in manufacturing and industrial processes to measure, monitor, control or otherwise manage the reliable and quality-conforming production of goods that do not respond well to standard range machine vision cameras. SWIR imaging adds more solution tools to boost the core machine vision concept “I can control that which I can reliably measure” and aid a digital pass /fail decision on a given inspected process. The beauty of the SWIR camera is that the data feels familiar to a standard black and white signal in both observed images as well as in the digital data stream, and since the underlying silicon and indium gallium arsenide (InGaAs) sensors are both photoelectric effect detectors, speedy results are the norm.
SWIR cameras are available in both 2-D imaging cameras and 1-D linescan cameras. Just as in the visible, the 2-D picture format makes for an easily interpreted image for discrete inspections, while a line-scan has a frame size unlimited in the motion direction ideally suited for moving web waterfall images. Room-temperature SWIR 2-D cameras operate at standard video rates—typically 30 to 60 frames per second (fps)—as well as faster under digital machine vision applications. For critical, high speed machine vision applications, consider a continuous-frame-rate camera that exceeds 90,000 lines per second at a full 1024 pixel resolution at 12 bits.