Sheet metal inspection system and apparatus
First Claim
1. A method for inspecting a part comprising the steps of:
- a) performing a data collection sequence to generate information representative of the part;
b) determining the major axis, minor axis and angle of orientation of said part;
c) rotating said representation of said part to a predetermined orientation;
d) selecting a master part representation corresponding to the part;
e) comparing said rotated representation with said master part representation to determine whether said part is within a desired tolerance of said master part representation; and
f) generating an acceptance report based on the results of said step of comparing.
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Accused Products
Abstract
An apparatus for inspecting sheet metal parts includes a computer for comparing a master representation to an inspected part. A part is scanned by passing the part in front of a computer vision system and an approximation of the part is thereby generated for comparison with the stored representation of a master part. The comparison includes checking for distance tolerances and proper feature placement of the scanned part and an inspection report for each inspected part is generated, indicating part acceptance status. Part tolerances may be varied for different parts and a library of parts may be consulted to automatically select an appropriate master part for comparison purposes.
68 Citations
25 Claims
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1. A method for inspecting a part comprising the steps of:
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a) performing a data collection sequence to generate information representative of the part; b) determining the major axis, minor axis and angle of orientation of said part; c) rotating said representation of said part to a predetermined orientation; d) selecting a master part representation corresponding to the part; e) comparing said rotated representation with said master part representation to determine whether said part is within a desired tolerance of said master part representation; and f) generating an acceptance report based on the results of said step of comparing. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10)
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11. A method for inspecting a sheet metal part comprising the steps of:
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a) performing a data collection sequence to generate information representative of the sheet metal part; b) determining the major axis, minor axis and angle of orientation of said part; c) rotating said representation of said part to a predetermined orientation; d) selecting a master part representation corresponding to the sheet metal part; e) comparing said rotated representation with said master part representation; and f) generating an acceptance report based on the results of said step of comparing, wherein said step of generating an acceptance report comprises the substeps of; 1) displaying a scanned part; 2) displaying the difference between the scanned part and a master part, and 3) indicating the pass/fail status of the scanned part.
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12. Apparatus for inspecting parts for conformance with a desired template, comprising:
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storage means for storing information representative of the exterior peripheral measurements and interior hole peripheral measurements and placements of the desired template; data collection means for linearly scanning a part and generating information representative of the orientation and exterior peripheral measurements and interior hole peripheral measurements and placements of the scanned part; comparison means for comparing the information representative of the actual exterior peripheral measurements and interior hole peripheral measurements and placements of the scanned part with the information representative of the exterior peripheral measurements and interior hole peripheral measurements and placements of the desired template irrespective of the orientation of the part; and means for reporting comparison results generated by said comparison means. - View Dependent Claims (13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19)
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20. A system for inspecting sheet metal parts comprising:
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a database of a plurality of data sets representative of a plurality of inspection templates; an examination surface upon which parts to be inspected are placed; lighting means disposed in relation to a first side of the examination surface; vision means mounted in relation to a second side of said examination surface; drive means for bringing about relative motion between the examination surface and the vision means along an axis; and means responsive to said vision means for generating a first data set wherein said first data set is representative of an inspected part, for selecting a second data set from said database wherein said second data set is representative of an inspection template, and for comparing said first and second data sets to determine if said first data set is within a predetermined tolerance relative to said second data set. - View Dependent Claims (21, 22, 23, 24, 25)
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Specification