JP2019124588A - Visual inspection device - Google Patents

Abstract

To provide a visual inspection device with which it is possible to simplify a construction and reduce the size, and to improve maintainability and operability.SOLUTION: Provided is a visual inspection device for inspecting the appearance of a workpiece, comprising a rotor 4 that rotates and moves around the workpiece and an imaging device 3 provided to the rotor 4 in order to image the workpiece, the rotor 4 having an opening 4c for carrying in and out the workpiece to and from an inspection position in its partial circumferential region. As the rotor 4 is rotated and the imaging device 3 is arranged at a position that corresponds to a desired inspection spot, it is possible to efficiently image a plurality of inspection spots by the imaging device 3.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 1

Description

  The present invention relates to an appearance inspection apparatus for inspecting the appearance of a workpiece.

  Conventionally, as an appearance inspection apparatus for inspecting the appearance of a work, one in which a camera is attached to the tip of an arm of a multi-axis robot is known (for example, see Patent Document 1 below).

JP, 2011-75534, A

  However, when such a multi-axis robot is installed in an inspection line and the appearance of the inspection object is to be inspected from the periphery, there is a problem that the equipment becomes large and maintenance is not good. In addition, in order to cause the multi-axis robot to perform a desired operation, it is necessary to carry out an operation called teaching to learn in advance the movement path of the camera and the operation operation (operation procedure). there were.

  Therefore, in view of such circumstances, the present invention has an object to provide an appearance inspection apparatus which can simplify the structure and miniaturize and improve the maintainability and operability.

  In order to solve the above-mentioned subject, the present invention is an appearance inspection device which inspects the appearance of a work, and is provided with the rotation body which rotates and moves the circumference of a work and the rotation body for imaging a work The rotating body provides an appearance inspection apparatus having an opening for carrying in and out the work with respect to the inspection position in a partial area in the circumferential direction.

  Since the imaging device is provided on the rotating body that moves around the workpiece, the imaging device can be disposed at a desired position and the inspection point of the workpiece can be imaged by rotating the rotating body. As described above, according to the appearance inspection apparatus according to the present invention, a workpiece can be efficiently imaged from the periphery with a simple configuration in which an imaging device is provided on a rotating body.

  According to the present invention, the configuration of the appearance inspection apparatus can be simplified, and the apparatus can be miniaturized. In addition, maintainability and operability are also improved.

It is a front view of an appearance inspection device concerning an embodiment of the present invention. It is a top view of an appearance inspection device. It is a block diagram showing a control system of an appearance inspection device. It is a flowchart of operation | movement of an external appearance inspection apparatus. It is a top view which shows the state which carried in the engine to the inspection position. It is a top view which shows the state which rotated the rotary body in order to test appearance. It is a front view which shows the state which raised the rotary body in order to test appearance. It is a top view which shows the state which switched the rotary body to the taking-out attitude | position. It is a top view which shows the state which carried out the engine from the test | inspection position.

  Hereinafter, an embodiment of an appearance inspection apparatus according to the present invention will be described by taking an appearance inspection apparatus for inspecting the appearance of an automobile engine as an example.

  FIG. 1 is a front view of the visual inspection apparatus according to the present embodiment, and FIG. 2 is a plan view thereof.

  As shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, the appearance inspection apparatus 1 includes a conveyor 2 as a conveyance means, a plurality of cameras 3 as imaging devices, a rotating body 4, and a rotating mechanism 5 for rotating the rotating body 4. The elevating mechanism 6 for raising and lowering the rotating body 4 and the base 7 are mainly configured.

  The conveyor 2 has two rails 8 installed horizontally and a carrier 9 moving along the rails 8. The carrier table 9 is composed of a plate-like portion 10 movably provided on the rail 8 and a columnar portion 11 provided on the plate-like portion 10. The transport platform 9 moves on the rails 8 in a state where the engine E, which is a work (object to be inspected), is held at the upper part of the columnar portion 11, the engine E from the upstream side (left side in FIG. 2) of the transport path. It is transported downstream (right side in FIG. 2). Moreover, the conveyor 2 is provided with the mechanism (not shown) which distributes the engine E into a non-defective product and a defective product on the downstream side of the transport path.

  The rotating body 4 is constituted by a frame member formed in a C-shape (an end ring or partial arc), and is horizontally supported on the conveyance path of the conveyor 2. The cameras 3 are provided on both end portions 4 a and 4 b sides in the longitudinal direction (circumferential direction) of the rotating body 4. Each camera 3 is attached to the rotating body 4 via a swing arm 12 as a swing member. The swing arm 12 has a base end portion swingably attached to the rotating body 4, and the camera 3 is swingably attached to a tip end portion of the swing arm 12. By swinging the swing arm 12 and the camera 3 around their respective swing axes, the distance and angle of the camera 3 with respect to the engine E are adjusted to a distance and angle suitable for imaging.

  In the present embodiment, two cameras 3 are provided, but the number of cameras 3 may be one or three or more. Moreover, the installation location of the camera 3 with respect to the rotary body 4 can also be changed suitably. Furthermore, the length of the rotating body 4 can be changed according to the number of cameras 3 and the installation location. For example, the rotary body 4 may have a semicircular shape or an arc shape shorter than the semicircular shape.

  The elevating mechanism 6 includes a plurality of cylinder devices 13 provided on the base 7 and a pair of elevating plates 14 provided on the upper end of the piston rod 13 a moving up and down the plurality of cylinder devices 13. . The rotary body 4 is supported so as to straddle the pair of lift plates 14, and as the piston rod 13 a moves up and down, the rotary body 4 moves up or down together with the lift plates 14.

  The rotation mechanism 5 has a plurality of guide rollers 15 as rotation support members that rotatably support the rotating body 4. A plurality of guide rollers 15 are rotatably provided on the lift plates 14 and arranged to be in contact with the outer peripheral edge or the inner peripheral edge of the rotating body 4. As described above, the guide roller 15 is in contact with the outer peripheral edge or the inner peripheral edge of the rotating body 4 so that the rotating body 4 is pinched by the plurality of guide rollers 15 from the outer peripheral side and the inner peripheral side. It is supported. Further, at least a part of the plurality of guide rollers 15 functions as a drive roller that is rotationally driven by a drive source such as a motor. By driving the drive roller to rotate, the driving force is transmitted to the rotating body 4, and the rotating body 4 rotates in the arrow A direction or the arrow B direction shown in FIG. Further, as an embodiment different from the present embodiment, a guide gear may be provided instead of the guide roller 15, and a gear portion meshing with the guide gear may be provided on the outer peripheral edge and the inner peripheral edge of the rotating body 4.

  FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing a control system of the appearance inspection apparatus according to the present embodiment.

  As shown in FIG. 3, the appearance inspection apparatus 1 according to this embodiment includes a control unit 20 that controls operations of the conveyor 2, the rotation mechanism 5, the elevation mechanism 6, the camera 3, and the swing arm 12, and an inspection target. An input unit 21 to which information such as the type of engine and its inspection point is input, a reference information storage unit 22 storing information serving as a reference for good / bad determination, a determination unit 23 for determining the quality of the engine, and a determination unit 23 And a determination result storage unit 24 for storing the determination result based on the above.

  The control unit 20 controls the operations of the rotation mechanism 5, the elevating mechanism 6, and the swing arm 12 so that the camera 3 can pick up an inspection point input by the input unit 21, and places the camera 3 at a desired position. . Further, the control unit 20 controls the sorting function of the conveyor 2 based on the quality determination result obtained from the determination unit 23. The determination unit 23 compares the reference information stored in the reference information storage unit 22 with the image captured by the camera 3 and determines the presence or absence of parts to be assembled to the engine, the number of parts assembled, and the orientation. , Confirm the placement etc., and judge the quality of the engine. The information stored in the reference information storage unit 22 is, for example, image information of a non-defective item obtained by imaging a portion corresponding to an inspection part.

  Hereinafter, the operation of the appearance inspection apparatus according to the present embodiment will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG. 4.

  When the engine with various parts assembled is installed on the transport table and the transport of the engine is started by the conveyor, a loading process for loading the engine to the inspection position where appearance inspection can be performed is performed (Step 1 of FIG. 4) ).

  In the loading step, as shown in FIG. 2, first, the rotating body 4 stands by in a loading posture in which the opening 4 c (a portion where an annular portion is broken) is directed upstream in the work transfer direction. Further, at this time, even when the engine E is transported, the rotating body 4 is disposed at a height at which the rotor E does not interfere with the engine E and the transport stand 9, specifically, the most lowered position shown in FIG. In this state, when the engine E is transported downstream, the engine E and the carrier 9 pass through the opening 4 c of the rotating body 4, and the engine E has an inner periphery of the rotating body 4 as shown in FIG. It is carried in to the inspection position on the area.

  When the engine is carried into the inspection position, the driving of the conveyor is temporarily stopped, and the process shifts to the imaging process of the inspection point by the camera (Step 2 in FIG. 4). In the imaging step, as shown in FIG. 6, the rotating body 4 is rotated clockwise, or as shown in FIG. 7, the rotating body 4 is lifted, or both rotation and lifting of the rotating body 4 are performed. Thus, the camera 3 is moved to the position corresponding to the desired inspection position. Then, when the camera is disposed at a position corresponding to the desired inspection point, the two cameras or one of them is moved by the swing arm to adjust to an appropriate distance and angle, and imaging of the inspection point by the camera is performed. It will be. The inspection point of the engine is input by the operator in advance to the input unit (see FIG. 3) before the appearance inspection is started, and the control unit rotates the rotating body or the like based on the input information of the inspection point. Control the movement of the swing arm.

  Furthermore, when there are other inspection points (in the case of "NO" in Step 3 of FIG. 4), the rotating body is rotated or raised or lowered to arrange the camera at a desired position, and similarly the inspection points by the camera Take an image of And such an imaging process is repeated until imaging of all the test | inspection parts is completed.

  When imaging of all inspection points is completed (in the case of “YES” in Step 3 of FIG. 4), an unloading step of unloading the engine from the inspection position is performed (Step 4 of FIG. 4). In the unloading step, as shown in FIG. 8, the rotating body 4 is rotated until it is in a unloading position in which the opening 4 c faces the downstream side in the workpiece conveyance direction at a position inverted 180 ° from the standby posture of the loading step. Further, the rotating body 4 is lowered to the same height as that in the loading step (see FIG. 1). In this state, the drive of the conveyor is resumed, and the engine E is unloaded downstream from the inner circumferential area (inspection position) of the rotating body 4 as shown in FIG. In the present embodiment, the loading path and the unloading path of the engine are configured in a straight line, but the loading path and the unloading path may be arranged relative to each other at an angle.

  The unloaded engine is sorted on the conveyor into a non-defective product or a defective product based on the result of the appearance inspection. The result of the appearance inspection is the quality determination made by the determination unit (see FIG. 3). When the imaging by the camera is completed, the image information is sent to the determination unit, and the determination unit compares the imaged image information with the non-defective item image information stored in the reference information storage unit to determine whether the engine is good or not. It is judged. As a result, when it is determined that the engine is non-defective (in the case of “YES” in Step 5 of FIG. 4), the engine is transported by the conveyor to the non-defective product conveyance path (Step 6 of FIG. 4). On the other hand, when the engine is determined to be defective (in the case of “NO” in Step 5 of FIG. 4), the engine is classified as good by the conveyor and conveyed to the defective product conveyance path (Step 7 of FIG. 4). ).

  Further, the result determined by the determination unit is stored in the determination result storage unit (see FIG. 3). The determination result stored in the determination result storage unit is associated with an individual identification number assigned to each engine, and the worker looks at the information stored in the determination result storage unit when a defective product occurs. In this way, it is possible to check the defective part and the defective content of each engine.

  As described above, in the appearance inspection apparatus according to the present embodiment, the camera is provided on the rotating body that moves around the work (engine), so that the camera can be moved to the desired position simply by rotating the rotating body. It is possible to arrange and to image an inspection point. Therefore, it is possible to efficiently capture many inspection points with a small number of cameras without installing many cameras around the work or using a complex multi-axis robot. As a result, the appearance inspection apparatus can be miniaturized and the structure can be simplified, and it becomes unnecessary to install a large-scaled apparatus using a multi-axis robot as in the prior art.

  Further, according to the appearance inspection apparatus according to the present embodiment, the maintenance can be facilitated and the operability can be improved by simplifying the configuration. In the conventional appearance inspection apparatus using a multi-axis robot, it is necessary to perform teaching work in advance, but the appearance inspection apparatus according to the present embodiment does not require complicated operations such as teaching work. It can be controlled by a simple input operation using a control panel or the like, and can be handled even by a non-skilled worker.

  Further, in the appearance inspection apparatus according to the present embodiment, in order to achieve further miniaturization, the size of the opening of the rotating body is made to correspond to the relatively wide upper part of each part of the engine. Rather, it corresponds to the relatively narrow lower part and the columnar part of the carrier. That is, as shown in FIG. 1, the width W1 of the opening 4c of the rotating body 4 is set to be larger than the width W2 at the lower part of the engine E and the width W3 of the columnar portion 11 of the carrier table 9 The width of the opening 4c is made as small as possible by setting the width smaller than the width W4 (maximum width of the engine) of the upper part of the engine E while making it possible to pass at least these parts, and the radial direction of the rotating body 4 The dimensions of are reduced. This makes it possible to further miniaturize the appearance inspection apparatus.

  By the way, in order to generally image an inspection part with high precision with a camera, it is desirable to produce a dark room by surrounding a imaging area with a light shielding member, and to image in a draft room in order to avoid the influence by external light. However, the provision of such a dark room increases the size of the equipment, and makes it difficult to see the inside when an abnormality occurs or the like, which has the disadvantage of maintenance such as a long recovery time.

  Therefore, in the appearance inspection apparatus according to the present embodiment, by configuring the camera so as to be able to swing using the swing arm, the distance and angle of the camera with respect to the work are adjusted to the optimum distance and angle, and a dark room is provided. Even if it does not exist, it is made to be able to image an inspection part accurately. As a result, it is not necessary to arrange the light shielding member around the imaging area, and enlargement of the equipment can be prevented, and maintenance can be improved.

  Furthermore, in the appearance inspection apparatus according to the present embodiment, a laser scanner (not shown) is used as a safety measure sensor for detecting the approach of the worker to the appearance inspection apparatus in order to miniaturize the equipment. There is. A laser scanner has a rotating projector, and a reflection type optical sensor that detects an operator's intrusion into a predetermined area by calculating the time when the reflected light of the light beam emitted from the projector is returned. For example, the visual inspection apparatus is disposed on a floor surface or the like on which the visual inspection apparatus is installed. Use of such a laser scanner eliminates the need for a fence as in the case of using a so-called light curtain area sensor in which a plurality of transmission type optical sensors are arrayed, thus further downsizing of equipment can be achieved. It will be.

  The appearance inspection apparatus according to the present invention has been described above by taking the appearance inspection apparatus for inspecting the appearance of an automobile engine as an example, but the present invention is not limited to this. The present invention is also applicable to an apparatus for inspecting the appearance of workpieces other than the engine.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Visual inspection apparatus 2 Conveyor 3 Camera 4 Rotating body 5 Rotation mechanism 6 Lifting mechanism 7 Base 8 Rail 9 Transporting table 12 Swing arm 13 Cylinder apparatus 14 Lifting plate 15 Guide roller E Engine (work)

Claims (1)

An appearance inspection apparatus for inspecting the appearance of a workpiece,
A rotating body that rotates to move around the workpiece;
And an imaging device provided on the rotating body to image the workpiece.
The visual inspection apparatus characterized in that the rotating body has an opening portion for carrying in and out the work with respect to the inspection position in a partial region in the circumferential direction.

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