3D Vision Inspection with LabVIEW
Summary
DMC's client has a large aerospace component with chemically etched 3D geometry on the surface. Due to the nature of the etching process and the tolerances required, the part must be inspected to ensure that all tolerances are met. DMC created a 3D inspection that the customer has been able to integrate into their existing CNC based positioning system. By using a 3D vision inspection for a part that contains thousands of inspection points the client is able to dramatically improve inspection quality and speed of inspection.
Customer Benefits
- Reduced inspection time
- Improved repeatability of results
- Direct integration with CNC machine for triggering inspections and recording results
- Automatic calibration algorithm eases setup
Technologies
Solution
The aerospace part under test has thousands of inspection locations. As a result, the SICK Ranger camera is attached to a CNC machine. This machine orients the camera so that it is perpendicular to the part under test. The SICK Ranger system uses Structured Light 3D, which employs a laser line that projects to the field of view at a 30 degree angle. With the lensing used, a field of view that was 1" wide was obtained with an optical resolution of better than 0.001".
The camera is connected to the CNC machine by a high-speed digitial trigger, and to a Windows XP Embedded computer via Gigabit Ethernet. It runs a program developed by DMC in National Instruments LabVIEW. This computer was designed to run without a monitor and be slaved directly to the CNC machine. The CNC issues inspection commands to the PC, and triggers to the SICK Ranger. the PC communiates results back to the CNC machine in real time. For diagnostic purposes, the raw data can be stored to allow detailed post inspection review of the data.
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