I hear two reasons for replacing end-of-line inspectors, (those cheerful ladies usually found in pairs at the end of the production line.) The first is that they cost too much and don’t add value, (although I think avoiding shipping bad product might have some value to the business.) The second is that they make mistakes, which is true. They are, after all, only human.
But as I have discussed previously, replacing those jolly souls with vision systems is very, very difficult, not to mention expensive. So let me suggest an alternative: give your inspectors the tools to do a better job.
The first tool they need is good lighting rather than the gloom so often found in manufacturing plants. Make sure they can see what they’re looking at. If you own a light meter, aim for 500 Lux.
The second tool is magnification. Typically we want to find flaws as small as 0.3mm (about 0.012”) and that’s a stretch for the human eye. But the old fashioned magnifying glass too slow and cumbersome. Instead, why not use a video system like the one shown below?
For $3,000 you get a clear, magnified image that allows the inspector to actually see what they are looking for. No, it doesn’t have automatic defect recognition (ADR) capability, but neither does it need a 6 axis robot to manipulate the part or five months of development effort. Think of it as Pareto Vision – for 20% of the cost of a vision system you get 80% of the benefit. Contact Aegis Electronic Group for details.
But as I have discussed previously, replacing those jolly souls with vision systems is very, very difficult, not to mention expensive. So let me suggest an alternative: give your inspectors the tools to do a better job.
The first tool they need is good lighting rather than the gloom so often found in manufacturing plants. Make sure they can see what they’re looking at. If you own a light meter, aim for 500 Lux.
The second tool is magnification. Typically we want to find flaws as small as 0.3mm (about 0.012”) and that’s a stretch for the human eye. But the old fashioned magnifying glass too slow and cumbersome. Instead, why not use a video system like the one shown below?
For $3,000 you get a clear, magnified image that allows the inspector to actually see what they are looking for. No, it doesn’t have automatic defect recognition (ADR) capability, but neither does it need a 6 axis robot to manipulate the part or five months of development effort. Think of it as Pareto Vision – for 20% of the cost of a vision system you get 80% of the benefit. Contact Aegis Electronic Group for details.
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