JP2007093343A - X-ray inspection device - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an X-ray inspection device capable of inputting each measuring point by simple input operation without requiring teaching, when successively measuring measuring objects that have identical shape. <P>SOLUTION: This device is equipped with a measuring position information input control part 33 for placing a plurality of measuring object groups S on a stage 14, by using a loading tool 15 for regularly arraying the measuring object groups having the same shape by fixed intervals, and urging the input of measuring position information containing a first-time measuring point position, a distance between measuring points and the repeated number of the times of measurement; a measuring point position calculation part 34 for calculating each measuring point position, based on the inputted measuring position information; and a stage-driving mechanism control part 35 for moving successively each calculated measuring point position into a measuring visual field of an X-ray measuring optical system. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2007,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to an X-ray inspection apparatus for performing fluoroscopy inspection or CT inspection of industrial products and the like, and more specifically, X measurement is performed by sequentially moving mass-produced products having the same shape into an X-ray measurement field of view. The present invention relates to a line inspection apparatus.

  In X-ray inspection equipment that performs fluoroscopic inspection of industrial products and the like, X-ray detection is performed by combining an image intensifier (hereinafter abbreviated as II) and a CCD camera so as to face the X-ray source of the X-ray generator. A movable stage is disposed between the X-ray source and the X-ray detector, and the object to be measured is placed on the stage. Then, the stage is moved to move the object to be measured within the measurement visual field (X-ray passage region), and X-ray measurement is performed. Recently, an X-ray inspection apparatus using a flat panel X-ray detector is used instead of an X-ray detector composed of II and CCD cameras.

  In X-ray inspection, a large number of measurement points may be measured one after another. In such a case, an apparatus is disclosed in which a plurality of measurement points of an inspection object are taught in advance in an industrial robot, and the inspection object is moved by the industrial robot to obtain a perspective image of each measurement point. (See Patent Document 1). Teaching is performed by operating a driving mechanism of a device such as a transfer robot in advance to actually move the measurement site into the measurement field of view, and the position information at that time (or other X-ray conditions and image processing conditions together with the position information). Is to remember.

  In X-ray inspection, mass production products of the same type are often moved one after another into the measurement field of view for measurement. In such a case, a dedicated mounting jig called a pallet for mounting a plurality of products of the same product type on the stage is used. The pallet is provided with positioning means for regularly arranging the products vertically and horizontally on the pallet at regular intervals and preventing the product mounting position from fluctuating. For example, as shown in FIG. 6, recesses that match the outer shape of the product (measurement object S) are formed at regular intervals, and positioning is performed by placing the product in each recess.

When performing X-ray inspection of multiple products mounted on the pallet, first, the position coordinates of the inspection site for the product to be measured for the first time are stored in the device by teaching, and then the position of the product to be measured for the next time Similarly, the inspection part is memorized by teaching with respect to the coordinates, and in the same manner, the inspection part of all the pallet-mounted products is memorized by teaching one by one. The position information acquired by teaching is stored as sequence information, and when X-ray measurement is started, each examination site is sequentially moved within the X-ray measurement field based on this sequence information, and measurement is performed one after another.
(See Patent Document 1).
JP 2001-153818 A

When measuring many products mounted on a pallet one after another using teaching, it is necessary to memorize the position coordinates of each product by teaching for all products, which is very laborious. .
In addition, products of the same shape are regularly arranged on the pallet, and the measurement field of view of the X-ray inspection apparatus is generally narrow, and the local fluoroscopic X-ray is displayed on the display screen of the display device instead of the whole image of the pallet. Since the image is displayed, during teaching, the product currently displayed on the display screen is mistakenly recognized as a product at a different position, resulting in a product that is not measured or double measurement. May be produced.

  Therefore, the present invention uses a mounting jig (pallet) that regularly arranges a group of measured objects (products) of the same shape, and when measuring these measured objects one after another, all the measured objects are measured. It is an object of the present invention to provide an X-ray inspection apparatus that eliminates the trouble of teaching a measurement point and further eliminates position confusion errors that are likely to occur during teaching.

  An X-ray inspection apparatus according to the present invention made to solve the above-described problems includes a plurality of object groups on a stage using a mounting jig that regularly arranges object groups having the same shape at regular intervals. The stage drive mechanism is controlled so that each object to be measured moves sequentially within the measurement field of view of the X-ray measurement optical system consisting of an X-ray source and an X-ray detector placed opposite to each other across the stage. In the X-ray inspection apparatus that captures a fluoroscopic X-ray image of each object to be measured on the stage, a measurement position information input control unit that prompts input of measurement position information including the initial measurement point position, the distance between the measurement points, and the number of measurement repetitions A measurement point position calculation unit that calculates each measurement point position based on the input measurement position information, and a stage drive mechanism control that sequentially moves the calculated measurement point positions into the measurement field of view of the X-ray measurement optical system And so on.

According to the present invention, the measurement position information input control unit prompts input of measurement position information including the initial measurement point position, the distance between measurement points, and the number of measurement repetitions. Specifically, an input screen for measurement position information is displayed to prompt the operator to input the initial measurement point position, the distance between measurement points, and the number of measurement repetitions. Of these three input parameters, it is desirable to input the initial measurement point position by displaying an image of the object to be measured for the first measurement on the input screen and specifying the position on the input screen. Other methods may be used as long as they can be specified. For example, if the position coordinates of the first measurement point are known in advance, the coordinate data may be directly input. Further, it is desirable to input the input parameters such as the distance between measurement points and the number of measurement repetitions directly from the input screen, but the present invention is not limited to this. For example, the distance between measurement points is measured from the coordinate difference between two measurement points by displaying an image of two measurement objects adjacent to each other on the input screen and specifying the measurement points of the two measurement objects. You may make it derive the distance between points.
The input distance between the measurement points matches the distance between the objects to be measured on the mounting jig, and the number of measurement repetitions matches the number of the objects to be measured. When the object to be measured is arranged one-dimensionally on the mounting jig, the input of the distance between measurement points in the X direction and the number of measurement repetitions in the X direction is prompted, and when the object to be measured is arranged two-dimensionally, The user is prompted to input the distance between measurement points in the X and Y directions and the number of measurement repetitions. When the input of these input parameters by the operator is completed, the measurement point position calculation unit sequentially calculates the position coordinates of each measurement point based on the moving distance between the measurement points and the number of measurement repetitions based on the initial measurement point position. calculate. Then, the stage drive mechanism control unit sequentially moves each measurement position corresponding to the calculated coordinates into the measurement visual field. Thus, measurement can be performed for each measurement point position.

  According to the present invention, it is not necessary to perform teaching by moving the measurement position so that it actually falls within the measurement field of view, and it is possible to input measurement points with a simple input operation regardless of the number of measurement points. . In addition, since teaching is not performed by moving to individual measurement point positions, teaching errors due to misidentification of positions during teaching can be prevented.

(Means and effects for solving other problems)
In the above invention, the measurement position information may include information related to the order of movement of the stage. Specifically, in the case of one-dimensional arrangement, whether to move from the left end to the right end or from the right end to the left end is set. In the case of a two-dimensional arrangement, it moves in one direction along the X direction from the upper left end to the upper right end, shifts by one line, moves again from the left end to the right end, and thereafter repeats the same movement in one horizontal direction ( Horizontal zigzag movement that moves in one direction along the X direction from the upper left end to the upper right end, shifts by one line, moves in the reverse direction from the right end to the left end, shifts by one line, and moves from the left end to the right end (See FIG. 7 (b))), moving in one direction from the lower right end to the upper right end, moving back in one row and moving in one direction from the lower end to the upper end (see FIG. 7 (c)), and various other You may enable it to set a moving direction order.
According to this, since the measurement order of the object to be measured on the mounting jig can be arbitrarily set, the degree of freedom in the measurement order can be increased. For example, the measurement order can be increased in another process other than the inspection process by the X-ray inspection apparatus. When a measurement object is mounted and it is desirable to perform X-ray inspection in the mounting order, the measurement order can be determined in accordance with the mounting order.

In the above invention, the measurement position information input control unit displays the entire image of the group of objects to be measured on the mounting jig on the screen of the display device when prompting the input of the initial measurement point position, and the position on the screen. A designated marker may be displayed.
This allows the initial measurement point position to be specified while displaying the overall image of the measured object group by displaying the entire image of the measured object group on the input screen, so the initial measured point position can be specified without misidentifying the position. be able to.

In the above-described invention, a list of the calculated measurement point positions may be displayed on the screen of the display device, and a measurement point position information display editing unit that edits each measurement point position on the screen may be provided.
Thereby, since the measurement point position once set can be finely adjusted for any measurement point position on the screen, simple and accurate measurement point position adjustment can be performed.

  Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. Note that the present invention is not limited to the embodiments described below, and it goes without saying that various aspects are included without departing from the spirit of the present invention.

  FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of an X-ray inspection apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention. The X-ray inspection apparatus 1 includes an X-ray measurement optical system 13 composed of an X-ray generator 11 and an X-ray detector 12, a stage 14 on which a measurement object S is placed, and a plurality of measurement objects S. A pallet 15 for regularly arranging the stage 14 on the stage 14 and a stage driving mechanism 16 for translationally driving the stage 14 in the XYZ directions (the stage surface is defined as the XY plane) and rotationally driving along the Z axis. And a control system 20 that controls the entire apparatus.

The control system 20 is configured by a general-purpose computer device. The hardware of the control system 20 is further described. The control system 20 includes a CPU 21, a keyboard 22, a mouse 23, a display device 24 such as a liquid crystal panel, and a memory 25. Is done.
Further, the functions processed by the CPU 21 will be described as a block. An X-ray image creation unit 31, an X-ray image display unit 32, a measurement position information input control unit 33, a measurement point position calculation unit 34, a stage drive mechanism control unit 35, The measurement point position information display editing unit 36 is divided.
The memory 25 also has a measurement position information storage area having an initial measurement point position storage area 38a, a measurement point distance storage area 38b, a measurement repetition count storage area 38c, a moving direction order storage area 38d, and a calculated measurement point position coordinate storage area 38e. Region 38 is provided.

  The X-ray generator 11 constituting the X-ray measurement optical system 13 includes an X-ray tube for fluoroscopic X-ray irradiation. The X-ray detector 12 includes II arranged so as to face the X-ray tube, and a CCD camera integrally attached to the rear side of the II, and is formed by II detecting fluoroscopic X-rays. An image signal of a fluoroscopic X-ray image is output by photographing the fluorescent image obtained with a CCD camera.

The stage 14 is configured so that the pallet 15 can be fixed. When the stage 14 is moved, the pallet 15 is also moved together.
The pallet 15 is the same as that of the conventional example (see FIG. 6), and has a total of 12 mounting positions for the measured object S, 4 columns in the X direction and 3 rows in the Y direction.
The stage drive mechanism 16 is equipped with a motor and drives the stage 14 in translation or rotationally based on a control signal from the CPU 21.

Next, each functional block of the CPU 21 will be described.
The X-ray image creation unit 31 performs control to convert the video signals of the fluoroscopic X-ray images sent from the X-ray detector 12 into digital images one after another and create frame image data.
In order to be able to display the entire image of the pallet 15 on the initial measurement position input screen described later, the frame image data of each part of the pallet 15 is accumulated and synthesized to create the entire image. Control is also performed.
The X-ray image display unit 32 displays the fluoroscopic X-ray moving image by sequentially sending the created frame image data to the display device 24 for display.

The measurement position information input control unit 33 performs an initial measurement position input screen 33a that prompts the operator to input an initial measurement point position, X-ray measurement for the object to be measured on the pallet 15, a distance between measurement points, and a measurement repetition. Control for accepting parameter input by the operator using the keyboard 22 or the mouse 23 is displayed on the display device 24 and the distance between measurement points, the number of repetitions of measurement, and the moving direction order input screen 33b prompting the input of the number of times and the moving direction order. Do.
As for the order of movement direction, if the setting is not changed, the movement direction specified in advance (for example, “moving in one horizontal direction” in FIG. 7A) is set, and the distance between measurement points is set as necessary. The number of repetitions of measurement / moving direction order input screen 33b can be changed in the moving direction order.
The input parameter information is accumulated in the initial measurement position storage area 38a, the measurement point distance storage area 38b, the measurement repetition count storage area 38c, and the movement direction order storage area 38d of the measurement position information storage unit 38.

The measurement point position calculation unit 34 calculates the position of each measurement point other than the first measurement point based on the input initial measurement point position, the distance between measurement points, and the number of measurement repetitions. The calculated coordinates of each measurement point position are accumulated in the calculated measurement point position coordinate storage area 38e.
The stage drive mechanism control unit 35 performs control to move the stage 14 and sequentially move the calculated measurement points from the first measurement point to the measurement visual field.
The measurement point position information display editing unit 36 displays a list of the coordinates of each measurement point position calculated by the measurement point position calculation unit 34 on the screen of the display device 24. Then, the measurement point position can be finely adjusted by changing the coordinate value of each measurement point position by an input operation using the keyboard 22.

Next, the X-ray measurement operation by this apparatus will be described. FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing the measurement operation by the X-ray inspection apparatus 1.
First, the pallet 15 on which the measurement object S group is placed is placed and fixed on the stage 14 (S101). A fluoroscopic X-ray image of the stage 14 is taken, and a fluoroscopic X-ray image of the entire palette 15 is created (S102). A fluoroscopic X-ray image of the entire palette is created by combining local fluoroscopic X-ray images of the palette 15 or when the entire image of the palette 15 can be captured by changing the imaging magnification. Then, the stage 14 is temporarily moved to a position where the entire pallet 15 can be imaged, and the entire image is captured. The positional relationship between the fluoroscopic X-ray image of the entire pallet created in this way and the stage 14 is associated, and when a specific position is specified on the fluoroscopic X-ray image, the corresponding pallet position can be specified. It is.

  Subsequently, an input screen for measuring position information is displayed. Here, as shown in FIG. 3 (a), the objects to be measured placed on the pallet 15 are arranged in four rows with a fixed interval a in the X direction and three rows with a fixed interval b in the Y direction. These are moved from the upper left end (position 1 in the figure) to the upper right end (position 4 in the figure), shifted by one line, and returned from the right end (position 5 in the figure) to the left end (position 8 in the figure). The measurement is performed in the order of moving in a zigzag manner (referred to as “lateral zigzag movement”).

  In order to set the initial measurement point position, as shown in FIG. 3B, the initial measurement point position input screen 33a is displayed on the screen of the display device 24 (S103), and the input standby state is entered (S104). The initial measurement point position input screen 33a displays an overall image 40 of the fluoroscopic X-ray image of the pallet 15 and a marker 41. The marker 41 is moved by the mouse 23 to designate the position of the first measurement point. When the marker position is designated, the coordinates of the designated position are read out and stored in the first measurement point position storage area 38a as the coordinates of the first measurement point position.

  Subsequently, in order to set the distance between measurement points, the number of repetitions of measurement, and the order of movement direction, an input screen 33b for the distance between measurement points, the number of repetitions of measurement, and the order of movement direction is displayed as shown in FIG. 24 is displayed on the screen 24 (S105), and an input waiting state is entered (S106). With the keyboard 22, “lateral zigzag movement” is set as the movement direction together with the distance a between the X direction measurement points, the X direction measurement repetition count 4, the Y direction measurement point distance b, and the Y direction measurement repetition count 3. In order to make it easy to understand the movement direction order that can be input at this time, for example, as shown in FIG. 4, a screen 42 (horizontal zigzag movement) for simple display of each movement direction order and a screen 43 (vertical one-way movement) ) Or the like may be stored in the memory and displayed on the screen of the display device 24 so that the operator can select it while viewing the screen.

  When the input operation on the input screens 33a and 33b is finished, the respective measurement point positions are calculated, and the measurement point position information display screen as shown in FIG. 5 is displayed on the display device 24 (S107). On the screen, the measurement point position can be finely adjusted by performing an editing operation for changing the coordinates of the measurement point position by an input operation using the keyboard 22.

  When the input operation is completed by the above operation, measurement is started (S108), and X-ray measurement is performed for the initial measurement point position. Thereafter, the measurement point is sequentially moved to the set measurement point in the set order, and the measurement is repeated until the measurement of all the measurement points is completed (S109).

  In this way, the position of all measurement points can be obtained by simply inputting the initial measurement point position, the distance between measurement points, the number of repeated measurements, and the order of movement direction as needed, without moving the stage and teaching. Can be set, so that it is not time-consuming and human errors due to misidentification can be prevented.

  In the above embodiment, the initial measurement position input screen is created using the entire image of the pallet 15 based on the fluoroscopic X-ray image. However, an optical camera using visible light is attached next to the X-ray detector 12 and the entire image of the pallet 15 is displayed. You may make it image | photograph and display the initial measurement input screen by a visible light image.

  In the above embodiment, one measurement point position is set for one measurement object. However, when the measurement object is large, a plurality of measurement point positions are set for each measurement object. May be. In this case, a plurality of measurement points may be set on the initial measurement position input screen 33a.

  Moreover, in the said embodiment, although the measurement range is designated with the marker 41 in the input screen 33a of the first measurement point position, the size c in the X direction and the size d in the Y direction of the measurement range are extracted, You may make it input previously as an initial setting value of the distance between measurement points. In this case, if the measurement is started with the initial setting value, the stage moves so as to perform X-ray measurement on the pallet without a gap as shown in FIG.

  INDUSTRIAL APPLICABILITY The present invention can be used for an X-ray inspection apparatus that sequentially performs X-ray inspections of the same type of object to be measured.

The block diagram which shows the structure of the X-ray inspection apparatus which is one Embodiment of this invention. The flowchart explaining measurement operation by the X-ray inspection apparatus of FIG. The figure explaining the input screen of measurement position information. The figure explaining the screen which performs the simple display of a moving direction order. The figure explaining the display screen for editing each measurement point position while displaying each measurement point position as a list. The figure which shows the structure of a pallet. The figure which shows the example of some moving direction order. The figure explaining the stage movement state at the time of measuring an X-ray on a pallet without gap.

Explanation of symbols

1: X-ray inspection device 11: X-ray generator (X-ray source)
12: X-ray detector 13: X-ray measurement optical system 14: Stage 15: Pallet 16: Stage drive mechanism 20: Control system 21: CPU
22: Keyboard 23: Mouse 24: Display device 24: Image memory 31: X-ray image creation unit 32: X-ray image display unit 33: Measurement position information input unit 34: Measurement point position calculation unit 35: Stage drive mechanism control unit 36 : Measurement point position information display editor 38: Measurement point position information storage area

Claims (4)

A plurality of measurement object groups are placed on a stage using a mounting jig that regularly arranges measurement object groups of the same shape at regular intervals, and an X-ray source and an X arranged opposite to each other across the stage X-rays for capturing a fluoroscopic X-ray image of each object to be measured on the stage while controlling the stage drive mechanism so that each object to be measured sequentially moves within the measurement field of the X-ray measurement optical system comprising a line detector In inspection equipment,
A measurement position information input control unit that prompts input of measurement position information including the first measurement point position, the distance between measurement points, and the number of measurement repetitions;
A measurement point position calculation unit that calculates each measurement point position based on the input measurement position information;
An X-ray inspection apparatus comprising: a stage drive mechanism control unit that sequentially moves the calculated measurement point positions into a measurement field of view of an X-ray measurement optical system. The X-ray inspection apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the measurement position information includes information related to the order of movement of the stage. The measurement position information input control unit displays a whole image of the group of objects to be measured on the mounting jig on the screen of the display device when prompting the input of the first measurement point position, and displays a position designation marker on the screen. The X-ray inspection apparatus according to claim 1. The measurement point position information display editing unit that displays the calculated measurement point positions in a list on the screen of the display device and edits the measurement point positions on the screen. X-ray inspection equipment.

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