Case Studies

Small Product Pick and Place Vision System

Posted in Manufacturing Automation and Intelligence, Medical and Pharmaceutical, Motion Control

Summary

DMC created an application that controls the process of identifying and transferring small parts in a high-tech medical product manufacturing operation.  The application controls a machine employing three servo axes, a gripper, and a vision camera.

3 Axis Pick and Place

3 Axis Pick and Place

Solution

The application used to operate the transfer machine is an integral part of the customer's manufacturing, quality control, and inventory tracking process.  A pallet of several small parts is presented to the machine.  The machine reads each part's serial number using the vision camera.  The pallet is sent to a quality inspection station and the inspection results are returned to the application, which logs each serial number and result to database.  The machine transfers parts that pass inspection to a separate pallet for further downstream processing.  Finally, each part's serial number is re-verified prior to shipment.

Customer Benefits

  • Enables better process and production decisions with seamless integration of data into customer's inventory tracking system
  • Reduces operator time requirements with simple, intuitive user interface
  • Improves quality control and data tracking with integration into quality inspection system
  • Full access to motion control and communication parameters allows for faster troubleshooting and maintenance

Technologies

  • Visual Studio 2005 & .NET Framework 2.0
  • ACS SPiiPlus Motion Control
  • Cognex In-Sight Camera
  • Cognex In-Sight Explorer Software
  • Cognex OPC Server