FEATURE:MANUFACTURING
Aurora Design Assistant
safeVisionary2 – Safe 3D environment perception opens up new dimensions
Benefiting from reliability and enhanced reputation
The benefits of machine vision are far- reaching for automotive manufacturers. They include quality assurance, efficiency and safety, with errors minimised or even eliminated. The bottom line for manufacturers is significant cost savings, along with preventing reputational damage.
“The adoption of machine vision in automotive manufacturing will significantly bring down the cost of poor quality through reduced recalls, rejections, returns, rework and scrap,” confirms Rajagopalan. “Proactive and early identification of
defects in manufacturing and assembly lines ensure the defects do not proliferate since the root cause is identified and fixed as early as possible.” Rünzi concurs: “Machine vision
ensures high-quality vehicles by detecting defects and maintaining stringent standards”. By automatically detecting errors
and defects, issues can be found and remedied in real-time, ensuring a reliable process. “The errors and anomalies detected by machine vision solutions can be corrected and inform modifications of the manufacturing process, so it creates a virtuous loop,” says Lambert. Enhanced automation, with machine vision guiding robots in performing complex tasks and ensuring adherence to quality standards, reduces the need for manual inspections. “Machine vision introduces a greater
level of automation, whether in visual inspection or robotic guidance, so workers don’t need to stand on the line manually checking,” says Lambert. “The task can be handed over to a machine vision solution, which will alert an engineer or technician when needed.” This reduces labour costs and removes
the risk of human error, as well as improving safety. Rünzi agrees: “Workers are protected from complex machine environments and automated guided vehicles based on 3D vision technology, enhancing safety”. There are knock-on effects associated with enhanced safety and quality, protecting manufacturers from potential reputational damage. “Having a machine vision solution that
supports the developments and reputation seen in the car-making industry around autonomous, hybrid and electric vehicles is beneficial as poor quality and safety can damage consumer confidence and company brand,” says Lambert. Chawarski agrees: “Auto safety is
paramount, but also the reputation of auto manufacturers is at stake with every part that is used on a vehicle. Poor reliability or recalls can greatly damage sales and perception of an auto brand. By applying machine vision, automakers and their suppliers can have confidence that their products will perform as expected.”
Betting big on machine vision While the benefits of using machine vision in automotive manufacturing abound, there are sticking points. The complexity of auto components and need for immutable quality represent challenges for machine vision algorithms. It is therefore crucial that employees have the requisite expertise to work with these systems, says Chawarski. “Auto makers have very high expectations of parts that come into their plants. No manufacturing process can be 100%, but the expectation is to get very close. Suppliers are allowed very small error margins; perhaps one in a million components are allowed to have a flaw. In order to control manufacturing processes to these margins, machine vision systems need to be extremely accurate, and it can take a lot of expertise, programming and testing time to achieve these required accuracies,” he says. Another difficulty is the seamless
integration of machine vision technology into existing set-ups. “Integration of machine vision systems with existing manufacturing lines and assembly lines without disrupting production is a big challenge,” says Rajagopalan.
> AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2024 IMAGING AND MACHINE VISION EUROPE 11
SICK Sensor Intelligence
Aurora Design Assistant
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39
