The role of inspection in automated manufacturing

2016

Quality is of paramount importance when establishing and maintaining market share in any manufacturing sector. Measurement is a critical tool in ensuring product conformance and is a major enabler in the control of manufacturing processes to improve and maintain quality. Furthermore, measurement is evolving into a value-adding process in its own right and the gained measurement knowledge has become crucial for both design and manufacturing stages. Despite this ever increasing importance, measurement planning and execution is still carried out with great reliance on manual operations and ambiguous practice guidelines utilising tools and software that are very specific to the individual pieces of equipment used in the measurement process. In addition, in industry, measurement plans are defined in isolation instead of in an integrated and interoperable manner with other manufacturing activities. This research aims to formulate an interoperable integration framework for defining measure...

Computer Integrated Manufacturing Systems, 1998

A method of CAD-directed inspection path planning for coordinate measuring machines is developed in this study. With the general three-dimensional objects designed in a surface model by the use of Autocad, the measuring points on each specified surface are generated automatically with even distribution. The probe inspection path is planned to touch each measuring point from a normal direction. With the swept-volume analysis of the probe path, any possible collisions can be detected and a new detoured path generated. This system is developed on the personal computer to make it more applicable to small-and medium-sized companies. 0 1998 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved

Inspection and dimensional measurement of machined parts plays a vital role in manufacturing. Machined parts are inspected to much tighter tolerances in order to achieve the highest quality finished products. The dimensional inspection process of discrete components has been developed and automated with time and has come a long way, from the early use of gauge blocks, dial indicators, micrometers to today's computer controlled coordinate measuring machines (CMMs) with touch trigger probes. Despite this rapid advancement, bespoke inspection methods are used for dimensional measurement of machined parts either on a CMM or a CNC machining centre have touch trigger probes. A generalised dimensional inspection framework is required and to achieve this STEP and STEP-NC standards provide a convenient plate-form. In this paper the concept of a framework which gives a generalised feature-based inspection and measurement plan for prismatic machined parts based on STEP and STEP-NC is presented. This generalised STEP-NC compliant inspection plan could be a direct input to an intelligent controller of a CNC machining centre through an interface or can be interpreted into an inspection code for a CMM. The inspection framework uses the information regarding manufacturing features of a machined part and touch probing as given in ISO14649 (STEP-NC).

The South African Journal of Industrial Engineering, 2012

The significance of inspection processes increases when producing parts with high levels of customer input. These processes must adapt to variations in significant product characteristics. Mass customisation and reconfigurable manufacturing are currently being researched as ways to respond to high levels of customer input. This paper presents the research and development of modular inspection equipment that was designed to meet the on-line quality requirements of mass customisation and reconfigurable manufacturing environments. Simulated results were analysed for application in an industrial environment. The implementation of the equipment in South Africa is briefly discussed. The research indicates that manufacturers need only invest in the required equipment configurations when they are needed for on-line inspection.

The Industrial Metrology and Industrial Inspection systems make student conversant with the latest trends of measuring efficiently and build industrial inspection and metrology systems. Therefore, this lab manual has been developed based on the common inspection and metrology platform, combining real-time data processing into sophisticated measurement systems for industrial applications.

Sensors

Robots are essential for the rapid development of Industry 4.0. In order to truly achieve autonomous robot control in customizable production lines, robots need to be accurate enough and capable of recognizing the geometry and orientation of an arbitrarily shaped object. This paper presents a method of inline inspection with an industrial robot (IIIR) for mass-customization production lines. A 3D scanner was used to capture the geometry and orientation of the object to be inspected. As the object entered the working range of the robot, the end effector moved along with the object and the camera installed at the end effector performed the requested optical inspections. The detailed information about the developed methodology was introduced in this paper. The experiments showed there was a relative movement between the moving object and the following camera and the speed was around 0.34 mm per second (worst case was around 0.94 mm per second). For a camera of 60 frames per second, the...

Inspection is an important process of manufacturing system. It is means of rejecting error parts and assuring good quality parts. The advantages of technological innovation in inspection equipment helped to overcome the problems associated with traditional approaches. Such means that used of labour intensive method increase in total manufacturing time and production cost. Advanced sensor and inspection technologies, interfaced with computer based systems to automate the operations of the sensor systems.

Journal of Manufacturing Systems, 1996

This paper presents an object-oriented generative inspection planning system developed in a STEP-based generic product modeling environment. The planning system consists of an object-oriented inspection process planner and an object-oriented inspection path planner. The inspection process planner retrieves inspection-related information, including dimensions, tolerances, and geometric items, from STEP model libraries to create inspection process plans using linear planning techniques. The inspection process plans, which consist of items for inspection, measurement sequence, and the number of measurement points on supporting surfaces, are then used by the inspection path planner to generate a collision-free inspection probe path. The corresponding results from the path planner are converted into programs and are transferred to a graphical environment for simulation to ensure the validity of the planning process. Examples are included to illustrate concepts, planning strategies, algorithms, and systems.

IRJET, 2020

This paper focuses on deviation in the measurement of profile CDS Circle Diamond Square made of Al 6063 by changing speed, feed and depth of cut. The profile of CDS is drawn by CAD modelling software and shape of the work piece is imported for machining in the CNC vertical milling machine. The actual dimensions provided of the work piece is 150*150*19 mm. The profile is made of about 4 sets. The work piece is tested for the tolerances, dimensions, and positional tolerances in the Coordinate Measuring Machine and on machine measurements. After completing the testing process the results are compared between actual value of the specimen and measured value of the specimen.

2015

This paper presents an approach for the automated inspection and quality control of manufactured parts from a remote site. A web-based control system was developed to establish communication among the various components of the experimental manufacturing cell, consisting of an IBM 7535 robot, a measuring station and a part feed station. The various cell components are interfaced with the computer through digital and analog interface modules from National Instruments and is controlled using a graphical programming language called LabVIEW. A dedicated web page was developed for the cell that allows remote users to perform online quality tests. Details pertaining to the cell and the control architecture developed to automate the quality control task are presented in this paper. The feasibility of providing non-site based hands-on engineering and technology education is also explored through this project. I.

Applied Sciences

Industry 4.0 represents a new paradigm which creates new requirements in the area of manufacturing and manufacturing metrology such as to reduce the cost of product, flexibility, mass customization, quality of product, high level of digitalization, optimization, etc., all of which contribute to smart manufacturing and smart metrology systems. This paper presents a developed inspection planning system based on CMM as support of the smart metrology within Industry 4.0 or manufacturing metrology 4.0 (MM4.0). The system is based on the application of three AI techniques such as engineering ontology (EO), GA and ants colony optimization (ACO). The developed system consists of: the ontological knowledge base; the mathematical model for generating strategy of initial MP; the model of analysis and optimization of workpiece setups and probe configuration; the path simulation model in MatLab, PTC Creo and STEP-NC Machine software, and the model of optimization MP by applying ACO. The advantag...

2017

The capability to impact quick changeover on an assembling line, starting with one item then onto the next, is a key essential for expanded flexibility. The requirement for nonstop product changeovers and the creation of slighter cluster sizes are getting more important. Furthermore, production lines are ordinarily made up of machines from diverse makers. In the occasion of an item changeover, numerous distinctive settings must be made at these machines. This undertaking describes a set of "configuration for changeover" decides that have been determined from activity exploration, completed inside a mixed bag of segments. Automatic arrangement offers extensive potential for upgrading manufacturing methods and reduced production cost. The research will also investigate the state of the art technologies that can support rapid changeover automation.

2013

Manufacturing processes for markets that involve high levels of customization are inherently exposed to unpredictable and often inconsistent demands. The use of statistical methods for controlling quality in these environments is not suitable. The implementation of 100% inspection would guarantee high levels of quality but involves high inspection costs, whereas 0% inspection is associated with high throughputs without being able to guarantee the outgoing quality of products. This research used the Expected Value Formula to provide a model that determined whether an inspection station should be activated or not. The modeldecision depended on specified parameters such as the internal, external and appraisal costs as well as the significance of the inspected feature. The overall profits and Cost of Quality metric were used to analyse the system performance and compare the model-based inspection criteria to the 100% and 0% inspection strategies, using simulations performed in Labview. ...

Mathematical and Computer Modelling, 1994

The demand to minimize the number of defects along with the increasing availability of computerized vision systems has made the on-line inspection of all production parts a feasible option in modern manufacturing systems. Vision systems enable noncontact, and thus, nondestructive measurements. An image of the production part is electronically obtained and stored in digital form in a computer. In most cases, the image is then processed to identify the local edges of the object. At a higher image processing level, information on local edges is used to obtain the boundaries of the object. Measurements on the computationally obtained boundary can then be performed mathematically, allowing tests to verify the shape and dimensions of the production part. It is the purpose of this paper to investigate and present methods for the determination of shapes and the use of this information for on-line quality inspection.

Industrial Engineering Journal

With current era of the Automobile industry, the product is manually or visually checked by using check list there is difficulty in inspection due to dependence on human skills and lack of ergonomic applications which cause fatigue. Inspection is one of the primary segments of the industrial parts production process. Machine vision is a present day strategy to inspect produced parts and it is a subcategory of engineering machinery, dealing with issues of information technology, optics, mechanics and industrial automation. Machine vision systems are used increasingly to solve problems of industrial inspection. This paper introduces an automatic vision based defect inspection or detection and dimensional measurement. The system identifies defects (Part Miss, Part Location, Welding Defects and grinding defects etc.) which usually occur in an assembly Structure component. The image processing technique used for Defect detection and algorithms developed for defect detection and linear dimension measurement. Various types of sensors were interfaced with the vision hardware and the part handling mechanism, to complete the total automated vision based inspection system. This system is an accurate, repeatable, fast and cheap solution for industries. This image processing technique is finished utilizing MATLAB programming. This work presents a strategy which decreases the manual work.