Backlit conveyor

I thought this was a pretty neat product, although I’d need to be convinced over its long term durability. (Go to http://www.conveyortechltd.com/accuvision.htm if the link above doesn’t work.)

Backlighting can be a real easy and effective machine vision technique for simple gauging or detecting mixed parts, but sometimes it’s difficult to orient the parts with regard to camera and light, especially if you want to see the whole perimeter and not just the bottle cap, like we see in so much vendor literature.

A word of caution though; if your parts are tall, the conical view through the lens will mean that you only see the top and not the bottom. In this situation you should to go with a telecentric lens (or at least a long focal length and a big working distance.)

And a second word; parts with reflective surfaces can be a little tricky to backlight, so consider that too.