CONTROL & AUTOMATION
AUTONOMOUS MACHINE VISION
INSPEKTO
ENDING THE GOLDEN AGE OF THE
SYSTEMS INTEGRATOR
In 2015, Forbes ran an article that stated a
robust systems integrator channel would
be vital for businesses to capitalize on
the need for Internet of Things (IoT) and
Industry 4.0 technology. This has proven to
be the case, particularly regarding machine
vision for quality assurance (QA). However,
we now sit on the edge of an autonomous
age that will entirely remove the need for
systems integration for machine vision.
Harel Boren, CEO and executive chairman
of Autonomous Machine Vision expert,
Inspekto explains.
Manufacturers across the globe are
adapting to the fourth industrial revolution.
As a result, investment in automation,
robots and motion control systems is
on the rise, as is the uptake of machine
vision for QA. In 2017, German mechanical
engineering industry association, the
VDMA predicted that growth in German
machine vision turnover would rise by ten
per cent. Later that year it raised its forecast
to 18 per cent growth, corresponding to
2.6 billion euros. Olaf Munkelt, Chairman
of the Board of VDMA Machine Vision said
of the growth “Machine vision is a major
trend. The period of growth will continue.
For years, the European machine vision
industry has been conquering new markets
and applications. Many great opportunities,
such as the smart factory or the car of the
future, can only be achieved with machine
vision as key technology.”
While this growth is attributed to the
drive to increase automation and reduce
the opportunity for human error in QA,
there are other contributing factors like
the public spotlight being cast on high
profile product recalls. For example, it was
widely reported that poor QA in Samsung’s
eagerness to compete with Apple was at
the root of the brand’s recall of its Galaxy
Note 7 smartphones in 2016. Industry
simply cannot be without QA, but what
makes it the necessary evil that it is?
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As industrial manufacturers, across
verticals, tiers and geographies experience
on a daily basis, there are no shortcuts to
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PECM Issue 36
visual QA. It is always a big investment
— in terms of time, money, downtime
and internal resources. Each visual QA
installation is a fully-fledged project
in its own right: starting with a POC
on samples, then development of the
QA solution, including selection of the
ideal components, such as cameras,
lenses, lighting components and filters.
Subsequently, the forming of a physical
structure, and then installing the machine
and completing tedious software set
up… It is a complex process that is
reliant on the involvement of a systems
integrator. Whether it’s a new QA solution,
or an adjustment to a new version of
the inspected product, every step in the
process requires specialist knowledge -
otherwise it will never leave the ground.
These imperative long solution-creation
and setup times inevitably lead to
downtime of the production line, as
well as temporary reliance on human
inspection for however long this process
takes. Needless to say, integrators go to
great lengths to assure that QA solutions
are developed and installed such that
lighting and surroundings can be carefully
controlled, as any changes will impair
function.
THE LIMITS OF TECHNOLOGY
Typically, machine vision solutions are
complex, cumbersome to develop and
install, leading QA managers to situate
them only at the end of a production line
or at key junctions within. These inherent
limitations often restrict the amount of visual
QA inspection that can take place to a single
inspection of the final product. This means
that if one component is faulty, the entire
product needs to be scrapped or amended.
This not only leads to inflated scrappage
costs, but also means that vital time and
energy has been spent assembling a product
that cannot be sold.
Wouldn’t it revolutionize the manufacturing
industry if visual QA could be undertaken at
all stages of production? Working this way
would catch errors in components as they
occur and stop their production sooner,
meaning the amount of material scrapped
(and the work that goes into it) is drastically
reduced and the whole product would not
need to be completely remanufactured.
Not to mention the grave impact that scrap
levels carry to any manufacturer’s bottom
line.
www.inspekto.com/