Image processing systems in web-based production environment

Faster, more reliable, more accurate, more flexible – the requirements for the production metrology of the future sound well-nigh Olympian in their stringency. The EMO Hannover 2013 will be addressing all the trends of relevance for production operations, responsively showcased for the target groups involved under the motto of “Intelligence in Production”. One of the major focuses here will be how to handle information from measuring instruments in the web-based environment of Industry 4.0.

The net sees everything, knows everything and forgets nothing: via web-based customer portals, users can already obtain a complete picture of all the data from the measuring instruments and systems being deployed. Most of these portals are based on a service-oriented architecture, thus optimising operational behaviours and significantly shortening repair and maintenance time. Web-based information platforms enable present-day users to work faster and more cost-efficiently, benefiting from simplified access to all instrument information. Thus design engineers, R&D staff or purchasers can get all the data they need on their screens by barcode-scanning of the instruments involved.

With measured tread into the future
A working group of the  VDI/VDE Association for Electrical, Electronic & Information Technologies (GMA) has already ventured a look into the future with its“Roadmap 2020 for Production Metrology”.It identifies four major focuses for future production operations.Besides resource-efficient and transparent production processes,these are quality and productivity,  and flexible production (this includes workpiece detection, intelligent robot, gripper and safety engineering with image processing and image-based control).

The importance of metrology for obtaining information was formulated back in the 19th century by the English physicist Lord Kelvin, who gave his name to the SI unit for temperature. Information is a crucial factor for a company’s success in regard to resource utilisation. Today, rapid technical advances in industrial production technology provide, with every new surge of development, more information on products and manufacturing processes becomes available. Production metrology  supplies  information  on  the features of processes and products.

Indisputably, production  metrology is a key technology for quality assurance of products and  processes. It helps to secure the leading global status of German technologies. It’s perceived importance and development status are outlined by Dr.-Ing. Dietrich Imkamp, who chairs the VDI/VDE’s Roadmap Working Group and in his day job is Head of Visual Systems & Partner at Carl Zeiss Industrielle Messtechnik GmbH, Oberkochen, Germany, in these words: “The metrological acquisition of quality features in industrially manufactured products has been largely solved. Fundamentally, everything can be measured. The challenge for production metrology nowadays is to  implement the technology  concerned  in  industrial manufacturing operations, so that acquisition of product quality data can be cost-efficiently achieved.”

The higher information density provided by metrological instruments enables imminent losses due to defective products to be detected at an early stage, he adds. It thus makes a vital contribution towards resource-economical design and to the transparency and cost-efficiency of production operations. Besides the development of innovative production lines and automated assembly systems, high-precision metrological technology, and in particular the use of image-controlled robots, are prerequisites for the production operations of tomorrow.

Image  processing systems, as pulse encoders or “artificial eyes”, have meanwhile become indispensable  for  production operations. They help  machines, lines and robots to maMen's Shorts - Shop Men's Shorts Online