Vision of the future
Published: 08 September, 2017
There is no shortage of vision systems that can offer complex inspection capabilities at incredible speed but their performance often falls short in harsher industrial environments.
Specialising in sensor and vision products for all industrial environments, Banner has produced the VE series of Smart camera, which the company says offers high performance in the toughest applications. The VE Series of Smart camera uses robust metal housings and with the addition of a range of optional lens covers achieves an IP67 rating for use in environments where heat, vibration or moisture are a concern.
The company’s free and easy-to-use Vision Manager Software provides a number of tools and capabilities that enable VE Series Smart Cameras to solve a wide range of vision applications, such as item detection, part positioning, feature measurement and flaw analysis. Included in the range of tools is the Circle Detect tool that can be used to inspect parts, products, packaging, or other objects that are in the shape of a circle or arc, or contain a circle or arc. This makes it easy to find imperfections as well as measure or determine circumference, diameter or the bend radius of a target.
The software includes runtime editing capability that reduces costly downtime and the software emulator allows for offline building and troubleshooting of applications. The Inspection Analysis feature allows users to review past inspection results, view system logs and quickly configure inputs and outputs. FTP Image Export capability enables the automatic export of inspection images as well as the creation of custom file names for each exported image. This facilitates the recording, tracking, and analysis of inspections and builds on Vision Manager’s capability to export images over TCP/IP. Test Summary provides an at-a-glance display of current test result values, along with minimum and maximum allowed values for each tool being used. This feature gives powerful insight to the current state of an inspection and is available in normal and full screen mode.
Models are available in 2MP (1600 x 1200 pixels), 1.3MP (1280 x 1024 pixels) and WVGA (752 x 480 pixels), all with extremely powerful inspection capabilities.
Higher resolution models (2MP) are used where larger areas of inspection are required or where a high degree of accuracy or resolution is required. However, the higher the resolution the larger the image file and the more processing power is required, therefore the slower the response time. For speed or basic applications the lower resolution cameras are used.
The VE Series seamlessly interfaces with the factory floor using EtherNet/IP, Modbus/TCP, PROFINET, and Serial RS-232 communication protocols.
The inspection capabilities of the VE Series coupled with its intuitive programming software and rugged housing offers a low-cost solution to applications, both in clean environments and in some of the more challenging industrial conditions.
For further information please visit: www.turckbanner.com
