Take another look at an important quality analysis tool.
Over the years, machine vision has become an important tool for quality analysis. As a technology, it is well-suited for on-line improvement of the manufacturing process. Yet machine vision is not as ubiquitous on the plant floor as might be imagined. According to some market experts, operators barely have scratched the surface with respect to opportunities for machine vision inspection in the manufacturing process. Perhaps it is time to reintroduce machine vision to the quality professional, discuss where the technology is today and review how machine vision can be used successfully.
Machine vision is an automated technology in which images are captured and transferred to a computer-image acquisition-and then processed to perform an inspection task and report the results-image analysis. Although sometimes implemented off-line, it is most effective when used as an integral part of a manufacturing process to capture production errors. Machine vision inspection can enhance quality when used to evaluate manufacturing at various steps in a process, thereby providing immediate and targeted feedback that often includes information about how to improve the process.