Quality control processes are essential for manufacturing consistently reliable goods. Many producers have implemented nondestructive testing (NDT) measures to examine items before they leave factories. Machine vision cameras are instrumental in this progress because they can scrutinize products to detect flaws, foreign objects and other issues. Most setups are also extremely efficient, supporting manufacturers’ productivity requirements.
Detecting Weld Quality in Electric Vehicle Batteries
Electric vehicles play an important role in the world’s clean energy goals.
However, manufacturers must uphold stringent quality checks to achieve competitiveness and earn customer trust because these offerings are less established in the market than their gas-powered counterparts.
High-tech vision systems help streamline formerly cumbersome processes and allow assembly line workers to find issues early. The battery tray used in cars from one EV maker needs 100 welds and five times as many rivets. The assembly process includes more than 20 steps, and some involve checking weld quality before applying sealant. That coating prevents leaks and makes the battery pack airtight.
The manufacturer handled these challenges with a custom machine vision system that relies on a pair of robots and two 3D laser profile cameras. The robotic machines inspect the batteries, and the gathered data goes to a 3D point cloud that gets checked against vehicle specifications to detect defects. Additionally, the cameras show surface-level welding details, allowing NDT applications to examine the entire weld profile or chosen sections.
Since all inspections occur in less than 200 seconds, this speedy solution suits producers with high-volume needs. Once the system spots defective welds, it automatically removes the problematic components from the assembly line for rework. Welders can also access computer-aided design files that show the precise defect locations.
Catching Deviations in Tortillas
If consumers notice changes in a product’s appearance or functionality, they may bring their concerns to the manufacturers. Since destructive testing makes products unsellable, producers can only examine small batches, which can lead to defective products sneaking through traditional quality checks. However, NDT techniques can check whole batches, significantly improving visibility.
One company developed an advanced vision system to examine flatbread tortillas against manufacturers’ and supermarkets’ specifications. Each party prioritizes various parameters for quality control. Retailers want undamaged products that meet minimum standards. Producers also care about those things but want to make items that fit within their packaging in the desired orientation.
The line-scan camera system created for this application can handle all those needs and many others. Its pneumatic-ejection capabilities immediately take problematic tortillas off the production line, preventing them from progressing to a later stage. The cameras can also tell if the tortillas have the appropriate circular dimensions.
This approach inspects 45,000 tortillas each hour, maintaining high output. The production line’s speed is so fast that humans cannot check each product. Fortunately, this application is an excellent example of NDT in action and explains why it has become so popular in modern manufacturing.
Finding Saw Blade Flaws
As manufacturers assess potential testing methods, they should outline their goals to find possibilities that match all or most of them. Although some companies still use destructive procedures, NDT has gained ground because it supports organizational priorities. For example, many companies have set environmental targets to reduce waste and responsibly use resources.
However, destructive quality control techniques make products unusable, which explains why the aircraft industry frequently uses NDT methods. Many of its assets are so large and valuable that damaging them is financially infeasible.
NDT vision tech also increases safety since inspections can occur without people handling dangerous items. One diamond saw blade manufacturer harnessed that benefit when creating a dual 3D camera system that reduced manual inspections.
Company representatives wished to gather detailed dimensional data, such as diameter and blade widths. Additionally, they hoped to capture these specifics without pausing the assembly lines for inspections. Capturing data in real time would allow the manufacturer to assess the overall quality and make the necessary adjustments to achieve consistency without disrupting the production flow.
Leaders ultimately chose a double-head laser-scanning system connected to a vision system with image processing capabilities. Since the lasers provided immediate feedback, workers could spot deviations from the specifications and tweak the machinery to address the matter.
Users can also adjust the system to inspect saw blades of different diameters, making the same thorough checks occur on products throughout the company’s collections. The entire measuring sequence occurs in just 20 seconds, emphasizing that this solution suits fast-paced manufacturing environments and does not require executives to choose between quality control and speed.
Choosing a Vision Tech System for NDT
These real-life examples show how manufacturers can move away from destructive, wasteful quality control checks and prioritize NDT for products ranging from batteries to food. Before selecting a vision tech system, leaders should consider their current challenges and needs. Allowing enough time to adapt the manufacturing environment to the new system and train employees to use it is also important for optimizing the outcomes.
