IPD Technical Conference

February 19

th

2008

GREG RACITI

Dual Camera Asynchronous OCR Inspection

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Project Objective

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Customer is a contract packager of OTC pharmaceuticals

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Independent OCR of date and lot codes on labels and cartons was required

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Existing packaging line needed to be retrofitted with dual camera solution

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Labeler and cartoner are not synchronized – One vision solution was needed to inspect both

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Operator interface needed very simple controls

Inspection Challenges

Non-Polarized

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Illumination

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Both cartons and labels have a shiny surface

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Custom polarizing filters were fitted to standard NER 70mm ring lights Triggering

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Label and carton inspections are independent, two camera asynchronous inspection was needed Ink Jet Font Skew

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The cartons codes are applied with an ink jet coder

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Depending on the speed of the line, the slant angle of the text can vary Polarized

Hardware Selection

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Dalsa IPD VA61vision processor

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Xycom Proface 15” color TFT flat panel touch screen – USB interface

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Panasonic FP-X PLC to handle all reject functionality

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SICK photoeyes for camera triggers

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Grayhill complete opto breakout board for VA4X

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Two Dalsa Genie GM6400 640x480 cameras

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Fujinon 16mm standard lenses with Tamron polarizing filters

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Siemens 70mm white LED ring lights with custom fitted polarizing filters

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All vision hardware was mounted and wired into an electrical enclosure

Asynchronous Setup Part I

Image Window Properties Skip Execution must be checked Required Subroutine Timeouts need minimum values External Trigger must be checked Required Start Acquire for Each Camera run Before Continuous Execution

Asynchronous Setup Part II

Main routine to acquire images only All image processing done in subroutines only Generate events for each Camera – for VB interface

VB – Operator Interface Demo

Conclusion & Observations

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GigE VA61 hardware finally offers a cost effective asynchronous setup

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Adding polarizers to standard NER ring lights offer a cost effective alternative to a DOAL or dome

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“Shear X” preprocessor makes inkjet skew compensation possible

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Extensive array of functionality available within VB makes creating an easy to use interface possible

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Use of “Execute Sub” VB command is critical to VB interface

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The addition of the Sherlock “Generate Event” streamlines the VB code