HEAVY INDUSTRY
Metal heads H
Vision systems are used throughout various metal processing tasks, from pressing aluminium parts to automotive welding all the way to shredding scrap metal, as Rob Coppinger discovers
eavy industry’s factories are complex places that can be dangerous to work in and machine vision and imaging
systems have had their place for many years in improving quality, productivity and safety. At Silver City Aluminum, products are
manufactured with the process starting with large rolls of aluminium, called billets, which are fed into an extrusion machine, pressed into a die and heated. Tey emerge as a slat, blind, or other shaped aluminium product. Te problem the Silver City Aluminum engineers had to tackle with a vision system is excess material being leſt still attached to the billet, which can damage machinery further down the production process. Aſter the billet has been pressed into the
Thermal cameras are being used to test the strength of welds in automotive workshops
die and heated for about a minute, a knife drops down, guillotine-style, and shaves off the excess 3 to 4 inches of aluminium. Occasionally, aſter a billet has been cut, the
14 Imaging and Machine Vision Europe • June/July 2012
excess material fails to fall off. When this hanging piece of aluminium hits the die, it can destroy it causing about $10,000 worth of damage in replacement costs. Such an event can also cause the machine to shut down, leading to expensive production losses. Existing photoelectric sensor solutions
were not performing well enough to detect the excess material so the firm’s engineers contacted CPU Automation, based in Tyngsboro, Massachusetts. Te company installed a dual-camera inspection system using the Boa smart camera from fellow Massachusetts company Teledyne Dalsa. Incorporating all the elements of an industrial machine vision system within a smart camera package, the Boa is an optical inspection tool for controlling quality. In the inspection system, one Boa camera
monitors the billet as it is loaded into the press to ensure that it enters the extruder properly. As the press is located directly in front of a large window, infrared lights are used to help reduce glare and reflections allowing a clearer view of the billet and preventing harm to workers’ eyes. A second Boa camera takes images of the knife as it drops to cut the billet
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InfraTec
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