Quality control is a set of procedures designed to ensure that a product or service adheres to a predetermined set of quality criteria, or that it fully meets the requirements of a specific customer. Quality control and inspections are classic procedures in industry.
In this specific process of industrial production, there have been many evolutions in terms of the techniques and strategies applied, but also and especially with regard to the technologies supporting the process itself. From zero control, there has been a move to control based on the human eye (figures placed in production specifically to control quality), until today where vision technologies are having a huge impact on production.
That is why we discuss machine vision systems applied to quality control in this article.
Artificial intelligence applied to vision systems is the means to achieve the great goal of modern industry: zero-defect manufacturing through vision systems applied to quality control.
Machine vision systems consist of one or more devices, which are responsible for the acquisition of data (images) and a device capable of receiving and analysing this data, usually a PC, by means of appropriately designed algorithms.
The core of the machine vision system is made up of one or more powerful cameras, appropriately chosen light sources, to which intelligence is added: vision algorithms and management software.
They are extremely flexible and usually linked to production and analysis requirements.
Vision systems for quality control can be integrated within a company’s production cycle, or be installed off-line as stand-alone inspection machines.
The advantages of a machine vision system for inspection include:
- the possibility of performing objective and documented analyses under conditions and at speeds unimaginable to the human eye, resulting in increased productivity;
- the need for non-contact with the object being inspected: especially in specific areas such as biomedical fields that require a guarantee of non-contamination;
- they provide a broader view of the production process.
Given their flexibility and characteristics, they are a medium that is becoming increasingly in demand and essential in today’s companies that want to achieve higher production and turnover targets, taking advantage of the precision, reliability and stability of automated systems.
In addition, the data collection capability, native to machine vision systems for quality control, also allows for more targeted production decisions. The vision control systems allow communication and interaction with other devices, creating a very broad control ecosystem, in line with the prerequisites of Industry 4.0.
The fields of application of machine vision systems for production control are diverse in the industrial environment:
- dimensional and morphological control;
- code reading (barcodes, QRCodes, alphanumeric writing, etc.);
- pattern recognition;
- pure quality control: search for defects and production anomalies.
How a vision system works for quality control
Machine vision applied to quality control can take place in different ways and can cover different production steps. The most common is through very high resolution micro-cameras installed directly on board production or packaging lines. The analysis process usually takes place within a second, at which time the vision system will communicate the result of the analysis.
Another mode is an operational machine vision inspection through integration with robots and cobots. In this case, you have robotic arms that mount a machine vision camera on the flange.
KabVision, with its K-Quality machine vision system for quality control, has developed a specific solution for inspection and quality control that, thanks to the power of neural networks (deep learning), allows the detection of faulty parts, contaminants, aesthetic defects, missing components, assembly errors, etc. on production lines with greater reliability than human inspectors and with the speed of a computerised system.
K-Quality can be applied both to machine vision systems for in-line and stand-alone quality control.
See a successful case where we developed a machine vision system applied to quality control, here.
For a KabVision consultation:
+39 3313466711- info@kablator.com
