JP2002014290A - Imaging unit for intra-work curvilinear passage - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an imaging unit for an intra-work curvilinear passage which allows the easy insertion of a reflecting mirror for photodetection even into the fine passage and enables an imaging camera to pickup the image of the light reflected by the reflecting mirror while the camera is held placed outside the work. SOLUTION: A lens assembly 16 which is alternately and rectilinearly arrayed with concave-convex lenses and is formed by alternately and rectilinearly arraying the concave-convex lenses so as to be made insertable into one end of a cooling water path 2 within a cylinder head 1 is housed into a rectilinear cylindrical body 14. A photodetecting window 21 is formed on the side wall surface at the front end of the cylindrical body 14 and a convex reflecting mirror 15 for photodetection inclined about 45 deg. is disposed on the inner side of the photodetecting window 21. The imaging camera 17 is freely attachably and detachably connected across a focusing lens 13 to the other end of the cylindrical body 14.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an imaging unit for a bent passage in a work used in an apparatus for inspecting the presence or absence of a bent passage whose inside can not be observed from outside, such as a cooling water passage in a cylinder head, and the state of the blockage. Things.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A cylinder head, which is a component of an engine, uses a core at the time of casting to form a cooling water passage in the head. In some cases, the cooling channel is partially clogged, and a required channel area cannot be secured. In such a clogged cooling water channel, in order to induce various adverse effects such as engine malfunction due to poor cooling, a process for inspecting the presence or absence of clogging in the cooling water channel as a post process of the cylinder head casting process. Is provided.

In such an inspection process, as shown in FIG. 3, for example, a light projecting unit 3 and an image pickup unit 4 are inserted into a pair of openings 2a, 2a of a cooling water passage 2 of a cylinder head 1, and the light projecting unit 3 Light is projected from the cooling water channel 2 to the cooling water channel 2, and the light that has passed through the inside of the cooling water channel 2 is received and imaged by the imaging unit 4. A device for inspecting is used.

A conventional image pickup unit 4 of this type is usually
It is configured as shown in FIG. That is, a metal cylindrical body 6 to be inserted into the opening 2a of the cooling water channel 2 is protruded and fixed to the mounting bracket 5, and the light from the light projecting unit 3 is sequentially radiated into the cylindrical body 6 from the tip end side. A convex mirror 7 that receives light through the light receiving window 21 and bends and reflects the light, a focus lens 8 that receives and converges the reflected light of the convex mirror 7, and an imaging camera 9 such as a CCD that receives and converges the convergent light of the focus lens 8. Built-in.

[0005]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Conventional imaging unit 4
In this case, the distance from the convex mirror 7 to the imaging camera 9 is limited to be short in relation to the focal length. Therefore, the convex mirror 7, the focusing lens 8, and the imaging camera 9 must be built into the cylindrical body 6 integrally. For this reason, the diameter of the cylindrical body 6 becomes large due to the built-in imaging camera 9, and depending on the internal shape and dimensions of the cooling water channel 2, it may not be possible to insert the cooling water channel 2 into the inside from the opening 2 a and the inspection may not be performed. In addition, since the imaging camera 9 and the cylindrical body 6 have an integral structure, it takes time and effort to remove the imaging camera 9 and maintenance is poor.

[0006]

In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, an image pickup unit according to the present invention comprises a concave / convex lens alternate linear arrangement in which concave / convex lenses are alternately linearly arranged so as to be inserted into one end of a bending path in a work. A reflection mirror for receiving light is provided at one end of the lens assembly, and an imaging camera is connected to the other end of the lens assembly via a focusing lens.

The reflecting mirror for receiving light is preferably a convex reflecting mirror capable of performing high-angle photographing, and the reflecting mirror is disposed, for example, inside a light receiving window formed on a side wall surface at one end of a linear cylindrical body. The lens assembly is housed inside the cylinder, and the imaging camera is detachably attached to the other end of the cylinder via a focusing lens. As a result, maintenance of the imaging camera alone becomes possible, and handling is improved.

[0008]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS One embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. The same parts as those in the conventional example will be described with the same reference numerals.

FIG. 1 shows a schematic configuration of an image pickup unit 10 according to the present invention. In FIG. 1, reference numeral 11 denotes a mounting bracket.
3 is built-in. Reference numeral 17 denotes an imaging camera, such as a CCD, that receives the convergent light of the focusing lens 13 and captures an image.
Is detachably attached to the rear end of the through hole 12. 1
Reference numeral 4 denotes a metal cylindrical body such as stainless steel inserted into the opening 2a of the cooling water passage 2, and the rear end thereof has a mounting bracket 1
One of the through holes 12 communicates with the tip of the through hole 12 and is detachably mounted. At the tip of the cylindrical body 14, a convex reflecting mirror 15 for receiving light from the light projecting unit and bending and reflecting the light is approximately 4 mm.
It is built in at an inclination angle of 5 degrees. A light receiving window 21 is formed on the side wall surface of the cylindrical body 14 at the front position of the convex reflecting mirror 15.

In the cylindrical body 14, a convex / concave lens alternate linear array lens assembly 16 is incorporated adjacent to the convex reflecting mirror 15. Irregular lens alternate linear array lens assembly 1
Reference numeral 6 denotes a plurality of concave lenses 16a and a plurality of convex lenses 16b alternately linearly arranged at a constant interval, and is provided for transmitting the reflected light of the convex mirror 15 to the focus lens 13.

Next, the operation of the image pickup unit 10 according to the present invention configured as described above will be described. As shown in FIG. 2, the guide bracket 18 having the tapered guide hole 18 a is connected to the guide hole 17 a and the cooling water passage 2.
The adapter 19 is installed on the cylinder head 1 so that the center lines thereof with the opening 2a coincide with each other. Next, by inserting the cylindrical body 14 of the imaging unit 10 into the guide hole 18a of the guide bracket 18 thus installed, the cylindrical body 14 is inserted into the cooling water channel 2 from the opening 2a of the cooling water channel 2. Is done. In this inserted state, the light emitted from the light projecting unit and bent through the inside of the cooling water channel 2 can be received by the convex reflecting mirror 15. The light received by the convex reflecting mirror 15 is bent and reflected by about 90 degrees by the convex reflecting mirror 15, received by the concave / convex lens alternating linear array lens assembly 16, and transmitted through the concave / convex lens alternating linear array lens assembly 16. The light is transmitted to the focusing lens 13. The light transmitted to the focusing lens 13 is converged by the focusing lens 13 and received by the CCD imaging camera 17, and can be imaged in a two-dimensional plane by the CCD imaging camera 17.

In the imaging unit 10 according to the present invention, the reflected light from the convex reflecting mirror 15 is transmitted to the focusing lens 13 by the concave / convex lens alternating linear array lens assembly 16.
It is possible to increase the distance to 7. In addition, the distance from the convex reflecting mirror 15 to the imaging camera 17 can be controlled by adjusting the assembly length of the concave-convex lens alternating linear array lens assembly 16. This eliminates the necessity of incorporating the focusing lens 13 and the imaging camera 17 in the cylindrical body 14 as in the related art.
4 and the distance from the convex reflecting mirror 15 to the imaging camera 17 can be easily set in accordance with the internal shape and dimensions of the cooling water channel 2. It is conceivable to transmit the reflected light of the convex reflecting mirror 15 to the focus lens 13 by an optical fiber instead of the concave / convex lens alternating linear array lens assembly 16, but the optical fiber has a large light attenuation factor and cannot be received by the imaging camera 17. There's a problem.

Further, in the imaging unit 10 according to the present invention, the cylindrical body 14 containing the convex reflecting mirror 15 and the concave / convex lens alternating linear array lens assembly 16 and the imaging camera 17 are detachable from the mounting bracket 11. , The cylindrical body 14 and the imaging camera 17 can be easily removed, and maintenance is easy.

Although an embodiment of the present invention has been described above, the present invention can be variously modified in addition to the above-described embodiment. For example, the above-described embodiment is used for measuring the degree of blockage of the cooling water passage 2 of the cylinder head 1. Although an example in which the present invention is applied has been described, it is a matter of course that the present invention can be widely used for measuring the degree of obstruction of a curved passage in a general work.
Various cameras other than the D imaging camera can be used, and a flat reflecting mirror or a reflecting prism may be used instead of the convex reflecting mirror depending on the application.

[0015]

As described above, according to the present invention, the reflected light of the reflecting mirror is transmitted to the focusing lens by the concave / convex lens alternating linear array lens assembly. This eliminates the need for a built-in cylinder, and the diameter of the cylinder and the distance from the reflection mirror to the imaging camera can be set arbitrarily according to the shape and dimensions of the part to be imaged, thereby increasing the types of workpieces that can be imaged. This can be expected to improve versatility. Also,
By detachably connecting the imaging camera with the cylindrical body having the reflecting mirror and the concave / convex lens alternating linear array lens assembly incorporated therein, maintenance of the imaging camera can be improved.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic configuration diagram of an embodiment of an imaging unit according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram showing a state in which the imaging unit according to the present invention inspects whether or not the cooling water passage of the cylinder head is blocked or the blocked state.

FIG. 3 is an explanatory view of an apparatus for inspecting whether or not a cooling water passage of a cylinder head is blocked and a state of blocking;

FIG. 4 is a schematic configuration diagram of a conventional imaging unit.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Cylinder head 2 Cooling water channel 2a Opening 10 Imaging unit 11 Mounting bracket 12 Through hole 13 Focus lens 14 Cylindrical body 15 Convex reflective mirror 16 Irregular lens alternate linear array lens assembly 17 CCD imaging camera 21 Light receiving window

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A reflecting mirror for receiving light is provided at one end of a concave / convex lens alternating linear array lens assembly in which concave / convex lenses are alternately linearly arranged so as to be inserted into one end of a bending passage in a work. An imaging unit for a curved passage in a work, wherein an imaging camera is connected to the other end of the lens assembly via a focusing lens.