Looking at a new range of inspection machines for quality control
Jake Holmes looks at some of the machinery safeguarding the quality of precision products
As product designs grow increasingly complex, the need to check and validate these designs continues to grow. Precision parts manufacturers can design parts that are measured in nanometres, a scale too small to be assessed with the human eye.
The desire for efficiency has led designers to maximise all space available to them, meaning a single nanometre can be the difference between a part working and failing. Having a high level of quality assurance on parts is also becoming increasingly vital to companies.
Bowers Group has developed its new Baty Venture FV series, a range of inspection machines. The field-of-view machine standout is the FV3020, named as such for its measuring range of 300 by 200 along the XY axis.
FV3020 features a dual field of view which has a three-micron accuracy on its large field of view, or a one-micron accuracy on its small field of view. The machine is mainly designed for control and quality checks, ensuring all product dimensions are accurate.
SPEED IS KEY
The FV3020 stands out due to the speed with which it can capture information and assess parts. In high-volume production environments, quality assurance mechanisms need to match the speed of production to avoid creating a bottleneck effect. With the machine, it only takes a single second to capture a thousand dimensions of a product or part, speeding up the quality control process significantly. Meanwhile, batch inspections can be completed in seconds.
The de-skilled nature of the process also helps reduce costs. Not needing to have an employee standby and assess each product nor operate the machine reduces costs and increases efficiency. The only labour required is moving parts on and off the field of view platform.
In-built to the machine is the software that allows the deskilled operation. It can detect parts that have been placed onto the stage, going through its library to identify parts and then assess them. A scan of parts needs to be uploaded to the machines library to do this, but once uploaded the machine can accurately detect parts and complete quality assurance checks.
If multiple fields of view are required for a reading, the stage is required to stitch together the data, however, if only one field of view is required for inspection then it is possible to attach a conveyor belt to the operation.
ROTARY VIEW
Full scans are possible using the FV3020, and this is what the optional additional rotary is for. Multifaceted parts can be scanned using the rotary attachment, allowing multiple sides of a part to be shown to the optic for inspection. This allows the process to be automated rather than an employee changing the rotation of the part after every scan.
3D parts can be scanned in using the rotary option, allowing one inspection shot to collect all the necessary data without constant repositioning from a user. This remains a deskilled process. Multiple scans can be taken per rotation to build an accurate image of the piece.
The stage can use different lighting to highlight different features of the part, allowing more accurate measurements to be taken. This can be done whilst the rotary part is in action, allowing silhouette to help create measurements. CNC rotary indexing is enabled via the rotary axis, allowing automated inspection programs to operate on cylindrical parts.
CONFOCAL PRO
An additional optional confocal pro laser probe, the SB-FVHPS-1, can be added to the FV3020 granting the machine Z-axis measurement capabilities. This can be used to assess pocket heights.
The laser is focused at a certain working height, shooting out a 65-micron diameter micron spot. A range of surfaces work with the laser, including transparent materials, giving it an advantage over traditional touch probes. It boasts an accuracy of 2.5 microns.
In addition to the stage lighting, the confocal laser is working underneath the rotary to measure points to assess flatness of the part. It is well suited to assessing surface height, flatness, and thickness. The confocal laser enables 3D functionality on an otherwise 2D scanner, providing additional Z-axis measurements in detail to go along with the XY measurements taken from the camera lens. Data is captured from both the top and bottom surfaces by the probe, allowing it to assess thickness in a single measurement. This makes it a versatile solution for a range of measurements.
ASSESSING PROGRESS
As technology becomes more advanced and machinery becomes more intricate, the need to correctly assess parts is becoming ever more important. Progress cannot be made unless what we are producing is functional.
Investing in quality assurance can help prevent future errors, breakdowns, bottlenecks, and lead to more reliable machinery. Reduction in human involvement will not only reduce costs but can also take human error out of the equation.
