This website requires certain cookies to work and uses other cookies to help you have the best experience. By visiting this website, certain cookies have already been set, which you may delete and block. By closing this message or continuing to use our site, you agree to the use of cookies. Visit our updated privacy and cookie policy to learn more.
This Website Uses Cookies
By closing this message or continuing to use our site, you agree to our cookie policy. Learn More
This website requires certain cookies to work and uses other cookies to help you have the best experience. By visiting this website, certain cookies have already been set, which you may delete and block. By closing this message or continuing to use our site, you agree to the use of cookies. Visit our updated privacy and cookie policy to learn more.
Quality Magazine logo
search
cart
facebook twitter linkedin youtube
  • Sign In
  • Create Account
  • Sign Out
  • My Account
Quality Magazine logo
  • Home
  • The Magazine
    • Current Issue
    • Digital Edition
    • Archives
    • How To Guide
    • Industry News
    • Subscribe
  • Web Exclusives
    • Blogs
    • NDT Exclusives
    • Quality Exclusives
    • Vision & Sensors
  • New Products
  • Channels
    • Management
    • Measurement
    • NDT
    • Quality 101
    • Software
    • Test & Inspection
    • Vision & Sensors
  • Markets
    • Aerospace
    • Automotive
    • Electronics
    • Energy
    • Green Manufacturing
    • Medical
    • Plastics
  • More
    • Leadership 100 Survey
    • Plant of the Year
    • Professional of the Year
    • Job Board
    • White Papers
    • Quality Store
    • Software Downloads
    • eCards
    • Product Spotlights
    • Industry Links
    • Sponsor Insights
    • Market Research
  • Multimedia
    • eNewsletter
    • Podcasts
    • Videos
    • Webinars
    • Showcases
    • Image Galleries
    • Interactive Spotlights
  • Events
    • IMTS
    • Event Calendar
    • Quality Show
  • InfoCenters
    • Manage Quality, Risk & Compliance
    • Material Science Quality within Microscopy
    • Modern Quality Control with SPC
    • Process Control in Manufacturing
  • Directories
    • Buyers Guide
    • NDT Sourcebook
    • V&S Sourcebook
    • Take a Tour
  • Contact
    • Contact Us
    • Advertise
Home » Case Studies: Enhanced Cylindrical Inspection

Case Studies: Enhanced Cylindrical Inspection

April 25, 2008
Reprints
No Comments
Boulder Imaging, a systems integrator involved with machine vision, saved its customer money by switching camera sources for its machine vision system.

Having 6,000 pixels, the Piranha 2 camera can detect defects down to 20 micrometers. Source: Dalsa


Boulder Imaging (Boulder, CO) is a systems integrator involved with machine vision. The software used with its machine vision systems is developed in-house and designed for specific applications. Boulder Imaging’s systems can be used to inspect any surface that requires a uniform finish, such as fiberglass, glass, paper or other Web applications. Furthermore, cylinder inspection, which is more challenging than Web applications, is a specialty of Boulder.

The system they have developed is called the Vision Inspector. One application of the system is to inspect the surfaces of printer drum cylinders, key components for printer cartridges used in laser printers. The machine vision system runs continuously, without any breaks.

All of Boulder’s machine vision equipment is used for industrial inspection in manufacturing plants that build products requiring surfaces with virtually no defects. There are two pieces to the Vision Inspector. First, there is the actual live inspection system that detects defects, gathers all information about defects and communicates with the robotics to sort them out. The second part is the process control station, which gives the operator a direct view of all defective parts that have been found, and classifies them. The system is, in essence, identifying defects and at the same time presenting this information in a statistical manner.

Says Carlos Jorquera, CEO and founder of Boulder, “The quality of the surface of a printer cartridge drum is directly tied to the quality of the printer page. Therefore, it’s very, very important to have a very uniform surface, otherwise field defects, field nonuniformities or any artifacts might show up on the printer page. Our Vision Inspector system inspects every single one of those drums made by our customer, a printer manufacturer.”

To get an image of something cylindrical in shape, Boulder uses Piranha 2 line scan cameras from Dalsa (Waterloo, Ontario) to put together a large image of the surface. Along with its own proprietary software, Boulder also uses Dalsa’s X64 frame grabbers to capture the image.

Jorquera explains, “We chose the Dalsa Piranha camera because it gets the resolution we needed to be able to see defects down to 20 micrometers in size. That requires us to use a camera with at least 6,000 pixels.” The camera’s light sensitivity allows Boulder to detect minute and difficult-to-see defects. The use of the camera also results in approximately 83 parts inspected per minute.

The high resolution of the Dalsa camera allows Boulder to image the whole length of the part. “Prior to using this approach, our customer was using up to three smart cameras from another source,” says Jorquera. “The cost savings from that change alone was about 40%.”

Jorquera sees machine vision components from Dalsa continuing to be important in the next generation of the Vision Inspector system. As Boulder continues to innovate, Jorquera wants the next phase to be able to incorporate adaptive learning, meaning that the machine vision system would be able to learn about defects from the data it generates.
    Dalsa
    (519) 886-6000
    www.dalsa.com


Benefits

  • Prior to using Boulder’s Vision Inspect system with the Dalsa Piranha 2 camera, Boulder’s customer was using a system with up to three smart cameras from another source.

  • The cost savings from the change to Boulder’s system was approximately 40%.

  • With the use of Dalsa’s Piranha 2 camera, Boulder’s system can inspect approximately 83 parts per minute.
  • subscribe to Quality Magazine

    Related Articles

    Case Study: Bearing Company Turns to Optical Inspection

    Case Studies: Innovative First-Article Inspection

    Case Study: Inspection Machines Sort Out Production

    Case Study: Five-Axis CMM Inspection Lets "Good Times Roll"

    You must login or register in order to post a comment.

    Report Abusive Comment

    Subscribe For Free!
    • Print & Digital Edition Subscriptions
    • eNewsletters
    • Online Registration
    • Subscription Customer Service
    • Mobile Help

    More Videos

    Popular Stories

    Speaking of Quality

    No More Hamburger Helper

    Guest Column

    Why is it (quality) so hard?

    Lean manufacturing

    Lean In to 5S

    Quality cost chart

    Prevention is the Key to Reduced Quality Costs

    The Cost of Quality

    Understanding How Management Involvement Impacts the Risk of Quality Cost

    BuyersGuide


    Poll

    Topics to Talk About

    What topics would you like to see Quality cover more?
    View Results Poll Archive

    Products

    Quality Brain Teasers: Real World Challenges to Build Your Manufacturing Skills (ebook)

    Quality Brain Teasers: Real World Challenges to Build Your Manufacturing Skills (ebook)

    Assessments and Training in the following areas...

    See More Products

    SoftwareDownloads

    Quality Magazine

    Quality December 2019

    2019 December

    Check out the December 2019 edition of Quality: Quality 4.0 for medical device manufacturing, automated metrology, gage trends, plastics, materials analysis and much more!
    View More Create Account
    • Resources
      • Market Research
      • Custom Content & Marketing Services
      • List Rental
      • Partners
      • Manufacturing Group
      • Polls
      • Privacy Policy
      • Survey and Sample
    • Want More
      • Connect

    Copyright ©2019. All Rights Reserved BNP Media.

    Design, CMS, Hosting & Web Development :: ePublishing