SIVPRO - Shape Inspection by Vision in PROduction

Important results from the project

The purpose of this project was to perform an industrial demonstration of a system for automatic control of the geometry of produced components where the components are transported on a conveyor belt. This objective has not been reached. However, a number of technical objectives regarding the performance of the system are verified and to some extent even been surpassed. Today we have a system that manages to control the shape of manufactured components, moving freely on a conveyor belt, with sufficient precision. The system manages a component frequency of 0.5 Hz.

Expected long term effects

The identified main effect once the system is installed was a reach a 20% reduction in scrap rate. In addition we also foresaw a significant effect on the natural variation of geometrical outcome, increased availability of process stage, decreased wear and need of maintenance, increased control of produced items, and significantly reduced run-in times. None of these effects have been verified, which also weren´t expected. Instead a number of technical demands have been verified that may result in the fulfilment of these effects provided the system is properly used.

Approach and implementation

This project has been a cooperation between three academic partners and five companies. The academic partners were responsible for the evaluation software, system integration and analysis, respectively, while the companies represented different parts of the technology. One of the companies were an end-user. The project was redundant in the sense that two different measurement technologies were provided by two different companies. The biggest obstacle in the project turned out to be that none of the partners had a total technological concept, which lead to blocking.