DMC worked with a leader in the confectionery industry to add a Keyence CV-X series camera vision system to an existing packaging machine. DMC integrated the camera with a Siemens S7-300 series PLC via digital IO. The Keyence camera was programmed with the CV-X programming software, and the Siemens PLC was programmed with Step 7 Simatic Manager. A user interface was used to control the system created on a Siemens TP1500 Comfort Panel and utilized Siemens TIA Portal and device proxy for programming.

The integration was started by mounting and programming the CV-X100 camera with the Keyence programming software. The camera was taught to distinguish good product from bad product. Once the camera was reliably detecting bad product, a digital signal was sent to the PLC to inform the rest of the system to perform the reject logic.

To automate the detection and rejection process, the PLC was programmed to send a digital output pulse to the Keyence camera to trigger a picture to be taken and return the result to the PLC. This result was then placed into a bit shift register to track the bad product as it was transferred to the packaging area. If the camera detected bad product, the PLC would prevent the machine from pulling a package and would reject the bad product for rework.

The machine packages at rates close to 1Hz, but the camera system displayed capabilities to function at much faster rates. With the flexibility of the Keyence camera programmable detection, this system is easily expandable and modular.