Precision Plastic Components

In this application multiple machines were required in order to handle the volume of parts.
The components were all made of clear plastic which, while being advantageous in that contamination produced a good contrast, the depth of field requirements caused by the fact that the parts were round and needed to be inspected around the complete circumference, presented an interesting optical challenge.

Each machine was equipped with four stations, each performing a different imaging task. As such, each station required its own optical and lighting set up. In order to keep costs to a minimum, all stations were interfaced to a single processor unit and by use of a multi- threaded program, all stations were able to work autonomously.