JP2018077184A - Article inspection method and inspection apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an article inspection method and inspection apparatus capable of accurately inspecting while controlling occurrence of halation.SOLUTION: A white light source 21 and an ultraviolet light source 23 are used simultaneously for carrying out visual inspection of a thin battery 5. The thin battery 5 includes: a laminate film 13 covering a power generation element and a resin cladding 17 covering the circumference of the laminate film 13. The surface of the laminate film 13 is inspected for presence of scratches etc. by irradiating white light 31 from the white light source 21 along the surface of the laminate film 13. The shape (molding state) of the cladding 17 of a resin molding is inspected by irradiating an ultraviolet light 33 from the ultraviolet light source 23 to the cladding 17 to thereby cause the cladding 17 to emit light.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 1

Description

  The present invention relates to an article inspection method and inspection apparatus for inspecting the appearance of an article.

  The diffused light is radiated from the arbitrary height around the surface except for the surface of the inspection object whose surface is glossy in a direction substantially parallel to the surface of the inspection object to inspect foreign matter attached to the inspection object. An inspection device and an inspection method are known (Patent Document 1).

JP 2014-44059 A

  A glossy inspection target as described in Patent Document 1 is likely to cause halation when irradiated with light. For this reason, it is necessary to take measures against halation in order to perform a more accurate inspection.

  Therefore, an object of the present invention is to enable a more accurate inspection while suppressing the occurrence of halation.

  The present invention is characterized in that appearance inspection of the exterior material and the covering material is performed by simultaneously performing irradiation of white light along the surface of the exterior material and irradiation of ultraviolet rays to the covering material.

  According to the present invention, more accurate inspection can be performed while suppressing the occurrence of halation.

1 is an overall configuration diagram illustrating an article inspection apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention. It is a top view of the inspection apparatus of FIG. It is a top view of the thin battery which is a test subject. FIG. 4 is a cross-sectional view of the AA cross-sectional view of FIG. 3 rotated 90 degrees clockwise. It is BB sectional drawing of FIG. It is an image figure of the thin battery imaged with the imaging camera of the inspection apparatus of FIG.

  Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

  FIG. 1 shows an inspection apparatus for performing an article inspection method according to an embodiment of the present invention. The inspection method using this inspection apparatus is performed in the dark room 3 in the dark room box 1. The article to be inspected here is a rectangular thin battery 5 shown in FIG. As the thin battery 5, for example, there is a flat lithium ion secondary battery. As shown in FIG. 4, the thin battery 5 includes a battery body 7 and a pair of positive and negative electrode tabs 9. In the battery body 7, a power generation element 11 as a built-in object is sealed with a pair of laminate films 13 as exterior materials.

  The electrode tab 9 is a thin plate-like electrode terminal led out from the battery body 7, and is electrically connected to the power generation element 11 of the battery body 7. The power generation element 11 is formed by stacking a plurality of positive electrode and negative electrode sandwiched by separators. The power generation element 11 is supplied with electric power from the outside by the electrode tab 9 and charged, and then supplies electric power while discharging to an external electric device.

  The laminate film 13 generally has a film shape in which a plurality of types of films are laminated. The laminate film 13 shown in FIGS. 4 and 5 has a nylon film 13a as a protective layer on the front side, an aluminum alloy layer 13b on the inside, and a polypropylene film 13c on the back side.

  The pair of laminate films 13 seal the power generation element 11 inside by welding the peripheral edges together. As shown in FIG. 5, the welded joint portion 15 where the pair of laminate films 13 are welded joined is covered with a resin covering material 17. As a result, the aluminum alloy layer 13b is prevented from being exposed to the outside, and an electrical insulation process is performed. The covering material 17 uses a resin that emits light when irradiated with ultraviolet rays. In this embodiment, a resin mainly composed of a thermoplastic polyamide resin is used as an example.

  The covering material 17 includes a pair of opposing walls 17a positioned on both upper and lower sides in FIG. 5 of the pair of laminated films 13, and end walls 17b that connect the ends of the pair of opposing walls 17a. As shown in FIG. 2, the covering material 17 is provided near the left and right ends in FIG. 2 of the three sides of the rectangular thin battery 5 where the electrode tab 9 is not provided and one side where the electrode tab 9 is provided. ing.

  The covering material 17 is formed by integrally molding the thin battery 5 in a state of being set in a mold (not shown). The resin injection port at the time of molding is approximately the center in the left-right direction of the tab facing side 5a on the side facing the side on which the electrode tab 9 shown in FIG. 3 is provided. In this case, the injected resin flows through the tab facing sides 5a toward the left and right sides in FIG. 3, and flows downward along the left and right sides 5b in FIG.

  As shown in FIG. 1, a table 19 is installed on the bottom wall 3 a of the dark room 3, and the inspection is performed with the thin battery 5 mounted on the table 19. At this time, in the thin battery 5, the covering material 17 is in contact with the cradle 19, and the laminate film 13 of the portion including the power generation element 11 is separated from the cradle 19. In this state, the laminate film 13 and the covering material 17 are inspected for defects. The laminate film 13 is inspected for surface scratches, deformations such as irregularities, adhesion of foreign matters, and the like. About the coating | covering material 17, it is test | inspected whether the molten resin at the time of shaping | molding has reached the terminal especially.

  The inspection apparatus includes two white light sources 21 as white light irradiators that emit white light and two ultraviolet light sources 23 as ultraviolet irradiators that irradiate ultraviolet light. Further, the inspection apparatus includes an imaging camera 25 as an imaging device, a controller 27 that simultaneously activates and emits the white light source 21 and the ultraviolet light source 23, and a display that causes the controller 27 to display an image captured by the imaging camera 25. And a container 29.

  As shown in FIG. 2, the white light source 21 is formed long along the longitudinal direction of the covering material 17 at positions corresponding to the left and right sides 5 b of the thin battery 5. The white light source 21 is disposed at a substantially central position in the longitudinal direction of the covering material 17 and above the covering materials 17 on both the left and right sides as shown in FIG. The white light 31 irradiated from the white light source 21 is irradiated along the surface of the laminate film 13 so as not to directly hit the laminate film 13.

  That is, in the white light source 21 on the left side in FIG. 1, the optical axis L1 is positioned above the right covering material 17 and light below the optical axis L1 does not directly hit the laminate film 13. To do. Similarly, in the white light source 21 on the right side in FIG. 1, the optical axis L1 is positioned above the left covering material 17, and light below the optical axis L1 does not directly hit the laminate film 13. Like that. Here, the optical axis L1 is the central axis of the white light 31 in a side view as shown in FIG.

  As shown in FIG. 2, the white light source 21 is disposed along the longitudinal direction (vertical direction in FIG. 2) of the covering material 17 at positions corresponding to the left and right sides 5b of the thin battery 5. For this reason, the white light 31 can irradiate almost the entire area of the laminate film 13 in the plan view of FIG. If necessary, the white light source 21 may have substantially the same length as the entire length in the longitudinal direction of the covering material 17 at positions corresponding to the left and right sides 5 b of the thin battery 5. The white light source 21 is not particularly limited, and for example, a fluorescent lamp, a cold cathode tube, an LED, or the like is used.

  As shown in FIG. 2, the ultraviolet light source 23 is formed long along the longitudinal direction of the covering material 17 at a position corresponding to each of the left and right sides 5 b of the thin battery 5 in the same manner as the white light source 21. As shown in FIG. 1, the ultraviolet light source 23 is disposed slightly above the white light source 21 inside the covering material 17 at a substantially central position in the longitudinal direction of the covering material 17. The ultraviolet rays 33 emitted from the ultraviolet light source 23 are light whose optical axis L2 is located on the inner side (center side of the thin battery 5) than the covering material 17 and outside the optical axis L2 (opposite side of the center of the thin battery 5). A part of the surface is made to hit the covering material 17. Here, the optical axis L2 is the central axis of the ultraviolet ray 33 in a side view as shown in FIG.

  Since the ultraviolet light source 23 is disposed along the longitudinal direction of the covering material 17 as shown in FIG. 2, the ultraviolet light 33 corresponds to the left and right sides 5b of the thin battery 5 in the plan view of FIG. It is possible to irradiate almost the entire region of the covering material 17 at the position. If necessary, the ultraviolet light source 23 may have substantially the same length as the entire length in the longitudinal direction of the covering material 17 at a position corresponding to each of the left and right sides 5 b of the thin battery 5. The ultraviolet light source 23 is not particularly limited, and for example, a fluorescent type or an LED type is used.

  As shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, the imaging camera 25 is positioned approximately above the thin battery 5 and above the ultraviolet light source 23. The imaging camera 25 is arranged so that the entire thin battery 5 including the covering material 17 can be imaged without the white light source 21 and the ultraviolet light source 23 getting in the way. As the imaging camera 25, for example, a combination of a solid-state imaging device such as a CCD or C-MOS and a lens group optical system is used.

  Next, an article inspection method using the article inspection apparatus shown in FIGS. 1 and 2 will be described.

  The two white light sources 21 and the two ultraviolet light sources 23 are operated by the controller 27 and irradiate the white light 31 and the ultraviolet rays 33 simultaneously. In this state, the imaging camera 25 captures the entire thin battery 5, and the captured image is subjected to image processing by an image processing device built in the controller 27. The image processing apparatus performs necessary processing on the input image. For example, the image processing apparatus includes a personal computer having a CPU, ROM, RAM, and the like as main elements, and image processing software necessary for the above-described image processing and processing is installed in advance.

  In the image processing described above, pixel processing is performed only on the covering material 17, and when there is a shape difference more than a specified value between the normal shape and the shape of the captured image, it is automatically determined that a defect has occurred (NG). For example, the display 29 displays NG. An image captured by the imaging camera 25 is displayed on the display device 29, and the inspector visually checks the image displayed on the display device 29, thereby performing an appearance inspection of the laminate film 13. At this time, when the covering material 17 is NG, when the appearance inspection of the laminate film 13 is performed, the inspector visually observes the image displayed on the display device 29 so that the final covering of the covering material 17 is performed. Perform an appearance inspection.

  The white light source 21 does not directly irradiate the laminate film 13 as shown in FIG. For this reason, even if the aperture of the imaging camera 25 is opened, the occurrence of halation due to the irradiation of the white light 31 can be suppressed. The surface of the laminate film 13 is brightly illuminated by the light diffused from the white light 31 to the surroundings. The surface of the laminate film 13 is also illuminated by the light reflected from the white light 31 reflected from the inner wall of the dark room 3 of the dark room box 1.

  Accordingly, by imaging the thin battery 5 with the imaging camera 25 in this state, the surface of the laminate film 13 can be clearly imaged. By displaying a clearly captured image on the display device 29, as shown in FIG. 6, defects such as a scratch 35 generated in the laminate film 13 can be easily confirmed visually.

  The white light source 21 irradiates the white light 31 from two places at different positions on the periphery of the thin battery 5, more specifically from two places facing each other. For this reason, the laminate film 13 is illuminated more uniformly and brighter as a whole by the white light 31 from two places. As a result, the image captured by the imaging camera 25 becomes clearer and the inspection accuracy is further improved.

  By irradiating the covering material 17 with the ultraviolet rays 33 from the ultraviolet light source 23, the light emitting substance of the covering material 17 reacts and emits blue light, for example. At this time, as shown in FIG. 1, by removing the optical axis L2 of the ultraviolet ray 33 from the covering material 17, the light amount of the ultraviolet ray 33 hitting the covering material 17 is reduced. The covering material 17 is mainly irradiated with light diffused from the ultraviolet rays 33. Thereby, the malfunction that the surface of the coating | covering material 17 shines white when the ultraviolet-ray 33 hits many coating | covering materials 17 can be suppressed, and the image which the imaging camera 25 images becomes clearer. By performing image processing based on a sharply captured image, a more accurate inspection can be performed. At this time, the white light 31 emitted from the white light source 21 is prevented from directly hitting the covering material 17 (directly hitting in FIG. 1), so that the captured image of the covering material 17 by the imaging camera 25 becomes clearer. It becomes.

  As described above, the resin injection port when the covering material 17 is resin-molded is approximately the center in the left-right direction of the tab facing side 5a shown in FIG. For this reason, it becomes difficult for the resin to reach the lower end portions of the left and right sides 5b in FIG. 3 which is the farthest position from the resin injection port of the covering material 17. At this time, when a portion where the resin does not reach near the lower end portion in FIG. 3 of the covering material 17 is generated, the shape of the covering material 17 is different from that of FIG. It is determined that a defect has occurred by image processing.

  Defects are less likely to occur on the upstream side of the resin flow than the vicinity of the lower end portion in FIG. 3 of the left and right sides 5b of the covering material 17, and defects are particularly generated on the tab facing sides 5a provided with the resin injection ports. The probability is very low. For this reason, about the coating | covering material 17 located in the tab opposing edge 5a, it is not necessary to perform especially the test | inspection by ultraviolet irradiation. If necessary, similarly to the left and right sides 5b, the coating material 17 on the tab facing side 5a may be inspected by installing an ultraviolet light source.

  In the present embodiment, the white light 31 is irradiated by the white light source 21 and the ultraviolet light 33 is irradiated by the ultraviolet light source 23 at the same time. For this reason, the inspection of the laminate film 13 by the irradiation of the white light 31 and the inspection of the coating material 17 by the irradiation of the ultraviolet rays 33 can be performed at the same time, which can be integrated into one process, and the working efficiency is improved. At this time, as described above, the occurrence of halation is suppressed, and the laminate film 13 and the covering material 17 can be inspected with higher accuracy while suppressing the occurrence of halation.

  In the inspection, when only the white light source 21 is used without using the ultraviolet light source 23, the laminate film 13 can be imaged, but the coating is affected by the pigment of the substance constituting the covering material 17. The material 17 cannot be imaged clearly. Conversely, when only the ultraviolet light source 23 is used without using the white light source 21, the covering material 17 can be imaged by light emission, but it is difficult to image the laminate film 13 because of insufficient brightness. Become.

  After the inspection of one surface of the thin battery 5 as described above, the same inspection is performed on the other surface of the thin battery 5 by changing the front and back of the thin battery 5 from the state of FIG. To do.

  As mentioned above, although embodiment of this invention was described, these embodiment is only the illustration described in order to make an understanding of this invention easy, and this invention is not limited to the said embodiment. The technical scope of the present invention is not limited to the specific technical matters disclosed in the above embodiment, but includes various modifications, changes, alternative techniques, and the like that can be easily derived therefrom.

  For example, in the above-described embodiment, a thermoplastic polyamide resin is used as an example of a resin constituting the covering material 17, but the thermoplastic polyamide resin is not limited as long as it emits light by ultraviolet irradiation. In addition, the laminate film 13 may be subjected to image processing to automatically determine a defect.

  The two white light sources 21 of the above embodiment irradiate the white light 31 from two positions facing each other. However, the positions may be slightly shifted from the positions facing each other along the periphery of the thin battery 5. Further, the white light source 21 may be configured to irradiate the white light 31 only from one place, or may be configured to irradiate the white light 31 from three or more places. For example, a total of four white light sources 21 may be provided at intervals of 90 degrees along the periphery of the thin battery 5.

  In the above embodiment, the thin battery 5 is used as an inspection object as an example. However, if the article includes a portion corresponding to the laminate film 13 and a portion corresponding to the covering material 17 that emits light by ultraviolet irradiation, the thin battery 5 is used. The present invention can be applied to other articles.

5 Thin batteries (articles)
11 Power generation element of thin battery (built-in)
13 Laminate film (exterior material)
17 Coating material 21 White light source (white light irradiator)
23 Ultraviolet light source (ultraviolet irradiator)
25 Imaging camera (imager)
27 Controller 29 Display 31 White light 33 Ultraviolet light L2 Optical axis of ultraviolet light

Claims (5)

Illuminate the surface by irradiating white light along the surface of the exterior covering the built-in material,
Irradiating the coating material covering the periphery of the exterior material with ultraviolet rays to cause the coating material to emit light,
A method for inspecting an article, wherein the external appearance inspection of the exterior material and the covering material is performed by simultaneously performing the white light irradiation and the ultraviolet light irradiation.   The method for inspecting an article according to claim 1, wherein the white light is emitted from at least two different positions on the periphery of the article.   The method for inspecting an article according to claim 2, wherein the white light is emitted from two positions at opposite positions on the periphery of the article.   The method for inspecting an article according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein an optical axis is shifted from the covering material when the ultraviolet rays are irradiated. A white light irradiator that illuminates the surface by irradiating white light along the surface of the exterior covering the built-in material;
An ultraviolet irradiator that irradiates the coating material covering the periphery of the exterior material with ultraviolet rays to emit the coating material;
A controller for simultaneously irradiating the white light irradiator and the ultraviolet irradiator;
An imaging device that images the exterior material and the covering material in a state where the white light irradiator and the ultraviolet irradiator are simultaneously irradiated by the controller,
And a display for displaying an image picked up by the image pickup device.

Images