Vision system ensures faultless production

Edited by the Engineeringtalk editorial team Jun 23, 2004

Cognex ensures the faultless measurement of products manufactured by Decorec, a French company specialising in metal cutting and part enhancement in the automobile and electrotechnical industry.

Cognex ensures the faultless measurement of products manufactured by Decorec, a French company specialising in metal cutting and part enhancement in the automobile and electrotechnical industry.

When a complex new automobile part is required, it is normally trusted to a specialist and needs to be custom made.

A recent contract for such a part was awarded to Decorec, which specialises in metal parts with extremely precise requirements.

In order to guarantee zero defects on all products delivered to the client, quality control checks were required on each and every aspect of the part fabricated, namely the length, diameter, and the concentric circles.

Once the quality of the inspection application was mastered, the products also needed to sustain very high production rates.

With the extremely small dimensions (just a few millimetres) and different tolerance levels involved, a noncontact measuring system using vision was required to ensure quality control.

As this type of application had never been verified with vision before, Decorec turned to Cognex, who could provide the specific technology to cater for the precise measurements crucial for the project's success.

Following a feasibility study, Cognex recommended a solution based on high-resolution cameras and optics guaranteeing an image without any deformation.

For this complex project, Decorec wanted to integrate vision by its own means and this was done with Cognex's help in training the technical team and providing a dedicated vision engineer, as well as permanent telephone support during the system setup.

Today the measurement machine controls more than 8000 parts per day and on each one of these products, the Cognex vision system executes measurements on more than 20 angles or sides.

Thanks to the success of the pilot project, Decorec is now considering using the same vision integrated model for other products manufactured at its site.