Laser inspection of various length round rods

[mtnaire67]

We manufacture fiberglass round rods in various lengths and diameters. My QC department has asked me to design 22 different go/no-go setups to check the lengths of our rods. This is just for starters. They range from 9" to 145" in length and need to be held to +/-.015". The diameter range is from 1/2" dia to 2-1/2" dia. I believe there is a laser inspection system out there that will work in this application, but I have searched Google and such and have not found what I need. We need to achieve 100% inspection and the inspection process is done off line and is not automated, yet. If someone could help recommend a laser inspection system that would work for this, that would be great. Thanks in advance.

 

[rb1957]

would a CMM do it for you ?

how long do you expect the measuring to take (per specimen) ?

why go/no go gauges ? why not just measure them and let the answer tell you good or bad ? (go/no go gauges suggests to me a mechanical set up (like a hole to measure pin diameters ... if the pin doesn't fit, you must reject).

 

[tygerdawg]

KEYENCE has some excellent devices for this, a variety of laser sensors and their laser micrometer come to mind. Their brochures have many application schematics that are very good idea-kickers.

TygerDawg
Blue Technik LLC
Virtuoso Robotics Engineering

http://www.bluetechnik.com

 

[mtnaire67]

I'm looking for just a few seconds a piece. The go/no go gauge would allow multiple rods to be checked at a single time.

Thanks, I will look into Keyence.

 

[rb1957]

wouldn't the "go/no go" concept imply a mechanical check ... a slot of the maximum tolerance above a slot with the minimum tolerance ... nothing stuck on top is too long, anything that falls through both is too short (these are the "no go"); anything inbetween is just right.

 

[MiketheEngineer]

Don't know much about them but there are some automated "comparators" out there that mya do the job??

 

[MikeHalloran]

I'd be inclined to look at a v-section support way, and a manual sliding contact arm linked to a DRO, that could report (and/or print) a measured length directly, and an attached old laptop that with a little programming could evaluate the measured length against limits and flash accept|reject|whatever.

A mechanical step gauge (go|not) with a pin- adjustable baseline, sort of like one edge of a jig borer's table, would also work. I don't think it would be effective for multiple rods unless you provide a way to orient them parallel and present them singly, like a dual chain conveyor fed by a hopper.

I think you'd best think ahead to how you are going to automate the process in the future, and build a subset of that for use now. Maybe that's where you're going with the laser idea; I don't see a laser bringing much to the party right now.




Mike Halloran
Pembroke Pines, FL, USA