Often, visual inspections imply subjectivity and human error. The results of an inspection depends on perception, experience, and judgement. To eliminate these factors, I designed an automated inspect machine to look for defects in the potting of electical connectors. The system is composed of a vision camera that looks for defects larger than a certain specfication, and an XY stage that moves a tray of connectors, centering each part under the vision camera. The system is controlled by a PLC to determine when the servos drive the stage, and when the camera should trigger.
Vision System: The Keyence VS Series uses a 3.2 megapixel camera to identify flaws in the epoxy potting.
XY Stage: The XY stage consists of two linear actuators, each driven by a servo motor. The two linear actuators are mounted perpendicularly, and a 3D printed tray nest is mounted on the top carrier.
Tray Nest: The tray nest holds one tray of parts at a time, toleranced to a universal size that all trays share.
PLC: The PLC controls the servos and the camera, and is programmed to move the stage in a specific pattern, triggering the camera at each part.