Table of Contents
Company Profile:
Special Purpose Machine is needed by our customer as they manufactures and markets friction material products to a huge customer base in the country.
Basically they offer disc, brake pads, clutch facings, clutch buttons, brake shoes and linings.
All these products are used in passenger cars, commercial vehicles, utility vehicles, two-wheelers and many others.
What is special purpose machine?
Special purpose inspection machines are custom build machines which are build as per the requirement of application to automate the specific set of task.
These custom machines are build using various PLC’s, 3D laser sensors, 2D cameras and custom software depending upon the type of application and requirement.
Special purpose machines used for various applications such as:
- Dimensional verification of the part on the customer’s line
- OCR Reading on Parts
- Sorting of good vs bad parts on basis of visual and dimensional inputs
- Pick and Place operation etc.
We Geo informatics builds such Special Purpose inspection Machines by integrating various sensors, controllers, PLCs together with custom software.
These special purpose inspection machines are designed for a specific family of a customer’s parts and compared to standard testing equipment.
Also it offers the ability to test a large number of parts at a very high speed, depending on the type of sensor used.
What is the application that require special purpose machine in automotive industry for Brake Pad Inspection?
Particularly the Application here was to measure the critical dimension on the brake pad.
Such as the Length Width Thickness, just after the production of the brake pad and do the 100% Inline inspection.
However, Currently the inspection is performed manually using the sample based inspection method.
What is machine vision system and why is it used in a special purpose machine for non-contact dimensional inspection of brake pads?
Machine vision system is used because Machine vision uses camera to capture the images of the parts and match with certain parameters programmed in it for inspection.
Also Machine vision technology often uses special optics to capture images.
So In this way, certain features of the image can be processed, analyzed, and measured.
Moreover the main application of the vision system in this special purpose machine is to detect certain parameters such as:
- Color of the part
- Presence or absence of the company logo and the overall shape.
Why company need to switch from sample-based inspection to Special purpose machine solution?
Company need to switch from sample based inspection because of several reasons.
Some of the reasons that made this company to switch to special purpose machine are:
- Overcome the high manpower requirements for visual and dimensional sample-based inspection.
- Reduce overall cycle time.
- Increased production rate.
So to achieve these requirements Geo Informatics used machine vision with Special purpose Inspection machine
How Geo Informatics was able to give 100% inline inspection solution using special purpose machine?
Finally to automate this task, a complete SPM (Special Purpose Machine) was built by us to provide them with the complete 100% inline inspection solution.
Accordingly, in addition to the 3D laser sensor and 2D vision camera.
Different types of sensors are used to collect all the information that the 3D/2D sensor needs to work with the PLC and SCADA.
Solution to the application provided by Geo Informatics
How the System Works
"This Machine was developed by our integration partner PVM automation"
The LMI Technologies Gocator® Advantage:
To provide the solution to this company application.
we mounted a single Gocator Sensor on a SPM (Special Purpose Machine) Conveyor system, along with a vision camera.
In the first phase, our SPM, vision system checks the color, the shape, the presence of PI and the logo on the part.
Afterwards part is turned over for the measurement of the critical dimensions.
Since the dimensions to be checked are located on the bottom of the part.
Now during the second phase, we used the 3D laser sensor which scans the part and measures the profile and the critical dimensions on the part.
Afterwards at the end of the third phase, our special purpose machine does the separation of OK and non-OK parts takes place.
If the part is ok, it is pushed into the OK bin, if it is not OK, it goes into the non-ok bin.
The sensor and vision camera are integrated with PLC, HMI and SCADA.
- Generates high-precision 3D scans and accurate measurements
- Robot-compatible for pick-and-place and palletization applications
- Built-in measurement tools make inspection easy
- Pre-calibrated, out of the box scanning and measurement capability
- Easy integration with existing factory systems
“For each application you can find a Gocator that suits your needs perfectly in “terms of FoV and resolution. They are easy to mount, easy to set up, and one Gocator does the job that other sensors would have done with two.”
Conclusion (The Result)
Previously, all dimensional inspection of brake pads was performed manually.
Primarily they were using first principal contact-based measuring equipment such as height gauges, callipers, and so on.
Therefore, accordingly this system achieved a completely automated conformity assessment.
Here the role of humans is solely to supervise the process and make any decisions that the machine was not able to take.
Shortly as a result, the line can run 24/7 while doing 100% inspection in the line itself.
You now fully understand what is special purpose machine.
How Geo Informatics may assist in developing a complete solution in accordance with the needs of an application.
As in this case, where we developed SPM for the automobile industry’s brake pad inspection.
We would be happy to assist you if you have a specialized application for which you would like to build a special-purpose machine.
You can take a free online demo one-on-one to help us understand your application so that we can offer you the best solution.