Lighting the way to tiny defects
A novel process is pinpointing and classifying paint defects on large panels
A new technique can detect and classify micron-sized defects in panels that are metres long – or sometimes the whole length of the car.
The process uses LCD screens with moving bars as light sources and an array of cameras attached to each screen. It is has been developed by Micro-Epsilon, working with BMW and Austrian company Atensor.
And not yet considered applicable to mass production, there is no reason why it should not be in the future.
Traditionally, these inspections have been undertaken manually, sometimes helped by zebra-striped light sources. In this case, bars of light move up a 40-inch diagonal LCD screen, which also carries the cameras. The whole system mounted on the end of a robot arm.
A longer article on this technology will appear in the November issue of Eureka.
