Ford Motor Company
Ford's Essex Engine Plant manufactures 3,8 and 4,2 litre engines for the Windstar, F-150, Econoline and Mustang models. One vital inspection performed 2600 times per day ensures that each engine has the correct type of piston installed. Manual inspection was only 85% effective and Ford needed to make sure the correct pistons were installed 100% of the time.
"After some research we decided to install a DVT SmartImage Sensor inspection system," said JimiTjong, Section supervisor at the Ontario-based plant. "During the in-house, on-line demonstration of the system we were impressed by the fact that it took only one hour to set up and was easy to use."
The system is integrated on the line through a programmable controller (PLC), and the operator interacts with it via a liquid crystal operator interface (OI). Ford estimated a return on its investment after about 18 months.
"The system is very flexible, maintenance-free, was not difficult to set up and provided us with the viable option we needed."
Harley-Davidson
Harley-Davidson's new engine is the most advanced to date requiring a host of automated quality control measures. The DVT Series 600 SmartImage Sensor was selected to perform this vital battery of inspections.
"We had 80 seconds to make 32 inspections on a very coarsely fixtured part and deliver 100% accuracy," said integrator Scott Woida, President of Midwest Engineering Services in Milwaukee, WI.
In order to accomplish the inspections, the DVT system was effectively turned into a 3D system. The Series 600 SmartImage Sensor precisely locates the engine, then measures three features on the engine with known diameters and communicates that data to the robot controller. The robot then moves the sensor across the engine on plane to ensure optimum accuracy for 32 points of inspection.
"As the application's demand grew, we found the Series 600 more powerful than we ever imagined," said Woida.
General Motors
The General Motors plant in Montreal, Quebec wanted to make sure that Firebirds were getting the correct wheels in initial assembly. There are nine different wheel styles randomly assembled to order. Cars are receiving wheels at the rate of forty-five per hour, so automated verification was a necessity to maintain GM quality and throughput requirements.
Charles Landry, an electrical engineer at the facility, was impressed with the flexibility and ease of the Windows based programming available with DVT's FrameWork software. "The FrameWork software is very user-friendly and flexible. I attended training in Atlanta and got a good base to start from."
In this application, the DVT SmartImage Sensor identifies the wheel model and communicates the model data to the PLC, which compares that information to the schedule. If the incorrect wheel is identified, the conveyor retains it and the operator receives a warning notification.
"In a different department we used another vision system but we did not touch it, it was too complicated," said Landry. "With the DVT system, we can do it ourselves and in our plant we tend to do things ourselves."
Plastics/injection moulding
Cascade Engineering ran into some problems while producing the interior door panels for the Chevrolet Malibu.
"Because of the geometry, panels would hang on the tool even after the ejector pins retracted," said Paul Rugg, Technical Services Manager at Cascade. As a result, the mould would close on the part causing tool damage and downtime. "We were spending $3000 a month on tool repairs ... changing the design of the door panel was not an option."
To solve the problem, Cascade installed a DVT SmartImage Sensor on the 1760 t Cincinnati Milacron machine facing the mould. "It saved the tool repair costs and let us allocate another $30 000 worth of annual labour costs because the press now requires only one full-time operator instead of two." Other problems such as bumps and flash were cut down.
© Technews Publishing (Pty) Ltd | All Rights Reserved
printer friendly version