Product category:
Vision and Colour Sensors
News Release from: Cognex UK | Subject: In-Sight 5401 camera
Edited by the Engineeringtalk Editorial
Team on 30 April 2008
Industrial camera improves robotic
versatility
Cognex PatMax is a tool for high-precision location of objects using technology that allows it to read and recognise an enormous variety of patterns.
In 2006 Feige Filling developed a robotic filling technology equipped with Cognex vision that opens up new opportunities for filling with regard to safety, speed and cost-effectiveness Equipped with the In-Sight 5401 camera plus PatMax, the RobotFiller, a robot with a four or six-jointed arm, can locate the different container stoppers for filling even when they arrive in various positions on the pallet
This article was originally published on Engineeringtalk on 12 Mar 2001 at 8.00am (UK)
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One of the RobotFiller's most important functions is to locate the stoppers with screw closures on the drums.
As the stoppers are arranged off-centre at the edge of the drum lid, they tend to be in a different position on every pallet.
Without a precision vision system, safe and rapid opening, filling and closing would not be possible.
Further reading
Vision systems retrofitted like CNC
Special purpose machine tools and assembly systems, with Cognex machine vision systems as an integral part, are being supplied to the automotive industry by Douglas Curtis Machine Tools
Complex vision technology in an affordable unit
Cognex have introduced the In-Sight 2000, an entirely new type of industrial machine vision sensor at a cost usually associated with "smart cameras"
Cognex PatMax technology makes In-Sight especially fast and reliable.
This tool for high-precision location of objects using technology that allows it to read and recognise an enormous variety of patterns.
Once the stopper is located, the filling process starts.
The first step is for the RobotFiller to pick up a tool, which it uses to remove the screw closures of the drums and put them down on a tray.
It then changes tool and grips the filling valve to suit the filling job.
Without human intervention, RobotFiller can switch different filling valves and tools for further processing, considerably accelerating the filling process.
In addition, the RobotFiller protects staff when critical substances are being handled, as the complete filling area can be enclosed and subjected to extraction.
Following precisely calibrated filling, the jointed-arm robot switches tools again to pick up the stoppers and close the containers.
With the drums filled, the pallet is ready to be transported by the conveyor belt.
Code-reading properties mean that the In-Sight 5401 can detect every container.
The information passed on to a safety system further up the chain ensures that the right containers for filling are located on the pallet.
This plausibility check means that the In-Sight 5401 increases process safety and helps save costs, as the incorrect assignment of filling material to container is ruled out.
The In-Sight 5401 suits operating environments susceptible as it is to toxic material and flammable substances.
Attached directly to the end of the robot arm and supported by eight LEDs arranged in a circle, the In-Sight 5401 intelligent camera system ensures optimum processes.
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