Machine vision has allowed an optimisation of production at manufacturing company Mayer & Co., known as MACO, producing rotary and tilting hinges for windows and doors. The components are manufactured exclusively at the company's main plants in Salzburg and in Trieben, Austria and all products undergo stringent monitoring and improvement processes, from development to production to delivery.
A vision system was required to detect whether the work piece had been inserted in the correct orientation. If not, an error message is sent to the machine controller and a separate mechanism rotates the gear to the correct position to be processed as normal.
A DVT 510 camera sensor from Cognex was fitted into a recess in the gears allowing the camera to detect immediately whether the piece is facing the right way up. 'With the camera sensors from Cognex and support from Buxbaum Automation, we were finally able to find a perfect solution to our problem. Rejects have been reduced to practically zero,' an automation engineer at MACO commented.
The technical capabilities of the Cognex DVT 510 – such as the Ethernet port, compatibility with standard bus systems, remote operation in real time, CMOS image chip, 32MB DRAM data memory, 8MB Flash memory and the Intellect camera software – were crucial in overcoming the issues faced. The software is easy to operate yet provides optimum scope for adjustment.
