USS secures GM machine vision contract

United Sales & Services (USS) Engineered Control Systems Inc. reports it recently won a three-year blanket order to provide DVT machine vision error proofing equipment to General Motors (GM).

By Control Engineering Staff June 2, 2005

United Sales & Services (USS) Engineered Control Systems Inc . reports it recently won a three-year blanket order to provide DVT machine vision error proofing equipment to General Motors (GM). The contract also includes system integration, engineering, labor, fixtures, and panels. USS will deliver and help implement DVT’s cameras and necessary lighting, cables, lenses, and breakout boards.

Other equipment provided to GM will include USS’ versa-mount, which is used for camera mounting and lighting. These mounts have five-axis adjustments and are made from

Under the contract, integration labor will include programming, engineering support, installation support, project management, emergency service, and maintenance service available to GM globally.

USS has been a long-time supplier to the automotive industry, and conducts research and development with typical automotive applications, such as adhesive bead detection, welded bead detection, welded stud detection, correct part assembly, product orientation, part measurement, part presence, hole pattern matching/measurement, robot guidance, 1-D and 2-D bar code reading and traceability, part identification, thread detection, color identification, and optical character recognition. Some of these applications have become part of GM’s bill of process over the years. In fact, GM’s Warren, MI-based Technical Center worked with USS’ R&D Center in Livonia, MI, for several years and continues to develop solutions for application problems.

Established in 1990, USS reports that it’s among the largest U.S. integrators, and is also an MMBDC minority-owned company. The firm’s total turnkey services include programming, engineering, training, maintenance programs, project management, technical staffing, 3-D computer animation, fixturing, special machines, networking, mounts, and sales of several vision systems and laser system lines and their necessary accessories.

—Jim Montague, news editor, Control Engineering, jmontague@reedbusiness.com