Zero defects: Vision system helps achieve zero defects

Mayer & Co. needed a vision system to detect whether a work piece has been inserted with the correct side facing upwards. The company found the solution using cameras from Cognex and support from Buxbaum Automation.

By Control Engineering Staff January 15, 2009

Known worldwide as Maco, manufacturer of rotary and tilting hinges for windows and doors Mayer & Co. found the solution to its production problems using cameras from Cognex and support from Buxbaum Automation, a supplier of industrial communication technology and vision systems for manufacturing industry. The resulting system helped reduce rejects to near zero.With components manufactured at the company’s main plants in Salzburg and Trieben, Maco distributes products through a worldwide network, with Europe as its main focus. Both the plant in Salzburg (the company’s headquarters and home to its product development center) and the plant in Trieben possess state of the art tool making facilities. Specialty machines, such as assembly equipment, are designed and produced in-house. Maco has derived its success from the quality of its products, and thusly, all products undergo stringent monitoring and improvement processes, from development to production to delivery.The company needed a vision system to detect whether a work piece has been inserted with the correct side facing upwards. If the piece is incorrectly positioned, the camera could immediately send an error message to the machine controller. A separate mechanism then rotates the gear to the correct position, and it can then be processed as normal. Maco fitted a Cognex DVT 510 camera sensor on the machine. A recess in the gears allows the camera to detect whether the piece is facing the correct direction.Automation engineers from Maco confirmed that with the camera sensors from Cognex and support from Buxbaum Automation, the problem was resolved. “Rejects have been reduced to practically zero. This has ultimately convinced our process managers to make further investments in this technology.” 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, 32 MB DRAM data memory, 8 MB Flash memory and the Intellect camera software – helped. They described the software as easy to operate with optimum scope for adjustment. Quality and expert advice mattered more than price, they said.With its international partners Woodhead Software and Electronics, Contemporary Controls, Trebing & Himstedt, ProSoft, Softing, Cognex, Büchner Lichtsysteme, Vision Components, Tamron and Fujinon, the Eisenstadt, Germany-based Buxbaum Automation says it offers a broad range of high-quality products in the areas of network technology, field bus systems and vision. Also read,

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