JPH0534125A - Method and apparatus for measuring shape of strip-like member - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To make it possible to measure the shape of a profile by applying the light from a light source device to the flat surface of conveyer in the longitudinal direction of a strip-like member, processing the image signal outputted from a one-dimensional video-camera, and accurately measuring the side edge. CONSTITUTION:A strip-like member 1 is mounted on a belt conveyer 2. A laser light source 3 and a one-dimensional camera 4 are arranged in the longitudinal direction of the member 1 on the conveyer 2. A linear laser beam which is extending in the approximate width direction of the member is projected, and the regular reflected light from the conveyer 2 is received with the camera 4. In this constitution, the image signal outputted from the camera 4 is supplied into an image processing circuit 11. The amplitude of the image signal is compared with a specified reference level, and the position of the side edge of the member 1 is estimated. The position information of the detected side edge is supplied into an operating circuit 12 and stored in a memory. The stored position information is read out. The shape of the profile, which obtained along the entire length of the member 1, is compared with the standard width and profile shape. Thus, the accurate measurement can be performed.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a technique for measuring the shape of a belt-shaped member placed on a conveyor, and more particularly to a method and apparatus for measuring the width of the belt-shaped member, the shape of the leading and trailing ends of the belt, and the attitude of the belt-shaped member with respect to the conveyor. It is about.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art For example, in a tire manufacturing process,
In the process of placing the belt whose front and rear ends are cut obliquely on the conveyor and conveying it, whether or not the width of this belt has a specified value and whether the shape of the front and rear ends of the belt has a predetermined value. It is necessary to measure whether or not it has a shape and whether or not the belt is placed at the correct position on the conveyor.

A technique for measuring the shape of a belt used for manufacturing a tire is disclosed in, for example, JP-A-63-28183.
No. 1 and JP-A No. 1-176546. For example, in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 63-281831, a laser beam is emitted from a laser light source in a longitudinal direction of a belt to determine the quality of an overlapping portion of a belt wound around a forming drum, that is, a joint portion. There is described a technique in which a linear CCD array receives the reflected light by projecting it obliquely so as to obtain a uniform shape, and detects a step as a deviation of a linear bright portion. In addition, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 1-1
Japanese Patent No. 76546 discloses a technique of projecting light from between the conveyors and receiving transmitted light to detect the position of the end point of the belt-shaped member.

[0004]

DISCLOSURE OF THE INVENTION Problems to be Solved by the Invention
In the method described in Japanese Patent No. 281831, it suffices that the linear light can be exactly projected onto the side edge of the belt-shaped member, but the position of the belt-shaped member on the conveyor is indefinite and cannot be projected onto the side edge. However, there is a drawback that the position of the side edge of the belt-shaped member cannot be accurately measured. Particularly, since the front and rear ends of a belt used for manufacturing a tire are obliquely cut, there is a drawback that measurement at the front and rear ends becomes difficult due to the influence of the direction of illumination.

Further, in the method of projecting light between the conveyors and measuring, since there is nothing to support the belt-shaped member between them, the belt-shaped member may hang down or fluctuate in the width direction. There is a drawback that the position of the side edge cannot be accurately measured. In order to avoid such drawbacks, it is conceivable to project light on the conveyor and receive reflected light, but the influence of the material of the conveyor, gloss on the surface, dirt, scratches, etc. appears significantly and accurate measurement is possible. I can't.

An object of the present invention is to eliminate the above-mentioned conventional drawbacks, and to easily and accurately measure the position of the side edge of a belt-shaped member without being affected by the shape and color of the belt-shaped member, the condition of the conveyor surface, and the like. An object of the present invention is to provide a method and an apparatus for measuring the shape of a belt-shaped member configured so as to be able to.

[0007]

According to the method for measuring the shape of a belt-shaped member according to the present invention, when measuring the shape of the belt-shaped member placed on a conveyor, the light from the light source device is almost equal to the longitudinal direction of the belt-shaped member. Project from the longitudinal direction of the belt-shaped member at a predetermined acute angle to the plane of the conveyor so as to form a linear shape extending in the width direction orthogonal to each other, and the line reflected on the surface of the conveyor matches the visual field of the one-dimensional video camera. The reflected light is received by the one-dimensional video camera arranged as described above, and is output from the one-dimensional video camera while moving the belt-shaped member, the light source device, and the one-dimensional video camera relatively in the longitudinal direction of the belt-shaped member. The image signal is subjected to image processing to obtain the positions of the end points of the strip-shaped member in the width direction, and the width of the strip-shaped member is measured from these positions.

Further, the belt-shaped member shape measuring apparatus according to the present invention comprises a conveyor on which a belt-shaped member whose shape is to be measured is placed and which moves at a constant speed in a substantially longitudinal direction of the belt-shaped member, and a longitudinal direction of the belt-shaped member. A light source device that projects light at a predetermined acute angle from the longitudinal direction of the belt-shaped member to the plane of the conveyor so as to be a linear shape extending in a width direction that is substantially orthogonal,
A one-dimensional video camera arranged to receive the reflected light reflected on the surface of the conveyor, and image processing of the image signal output from the one-dimensional video camera to obtain the position of the end point in the width direction of the belt-shaped member. From the image processing circuit and the positions of the end points in the width direction of the strip-shaped member obtained by this image processing circuit,
An arithmetic circuit for measuring the width and shape of the strip-shaped member and the posture with respect to the conveyor.

[0009]

In the method and apparatus for measuring the shape of the belt-shaped member according to the present invention as described above, the linear light extending in the direction substantially orthogonal to the longitudinal direction of the belt-shaped member is projected to reflect the light reflected from the conveyor. Since the reflected light is received by the one-dimensional video camera arranged so as to receive the light, the image signal output from the one-dimensional video camera suddenly changes at the side edge of the belt-shaped member, and the position of the side edge is changed. Can be measured very accurately. Further, the width of the strip-shaped member can be measured from the position of the side edge thus obtained, and the contour shape can also be measured by performing the above-described measurement over the entire length of the strip-shaped member, and further on the conveyor. Attitude can also be measured.

[0010]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS FIG. 1 shows the basic principle of a side edge position measuring method in the shape measuring method for a strip-shaped member according to the present invention. The belt-shaped member 1 whose shape is to be measured is the conveyor 2
Place on top. The conveyor 2 is composed of an endless belt and is moved in the longitudinal direction of the belt-shaped member 1 at a constant speed.

A laser light source device 3 is arranged above the conveyor 2, and a laser beam is projected from the longitudinal direction of the belt-shaped member 1 at a predetermined acute angle θ. This angle θ is preferably 20 to 60 degrees. The light projected from the laser light source device 3 becomes one line on the surface of the conveyor 2,
When the strip-shaped member 1 is present, it is a straight line displaced on the surface of the strip-shaped member as shown by a broken line L in FIG. A one-dimensional video camera 4 is further arranged above the conveyor 2, and at this time, the line of specularly reflected light reflected on the surface of the conveyor 2 is aligned with the visual field S of the one-dimensional video camera 4. Deploy. In principle, specular reflection is not necessary, but since the amount of received light is greatest during specular reflection, such an arrangement is desirable. In addition, the one-dimensional video camera 4
The light receiving element of is composed of a line sensor extending in the width direction of the belt-shaped member 1.

With the above-mentioned structure, the image signal obtained from the one-dimensional video camera 4 has a very high brightness in the conveyor 2 portion as shown in FIG. It will be small. Therefore, 1
By comparing the image signal output from the three-dimensional video camera 4 with an appropriately determined reference level, the position of the side edge of the belt-shaped member 1 can be measured extremely accurately.

The width of the belt-shaped member 1 can be measured from the position of the side edge measured as described above. In addition, such measurement is performed every time the conveyor 2 moves by a predetermined distance, measurement is performed at a plurality of locations along the longitudinal direction, and the position of the side edge at each location is measured to determine the total length of the belt-shaped member. It is possible to measure the width, contour shape, posture of the belt-shaped member on the conveyor, and the like.

In FIG. 1, laser light source devices 3 and 1 are used.
The two-dimensional video camera 4 was fixed, and the conveyor 2 on which the belt-shaped member 1 was placed was moved in the longitudinal direction of the belt-shaped member. However, this relationship is reversed, and the conveyor is stopped and the laser light source device 3 and the one-dimensional video camera are stopped. 4 may be moved in the longitudinal direction of the belt-shaped member.

FIG. 3 shows the entire construction of an embodiment of the shape measuring apparatus for a belt-shaped member according to the present invention. The same parts as those shown in FIG. 1 are designated by the same reference numerals. Also in this example, the belt-shaped member 1 is placed on the belt conveyor 2, and this conveyor is moved in the longitudinal direction of the belt-shaped member.
The laser light source device 3 and the one-dimensional video camera 4 are arranged above the conveyor 2, and a linear laser beam extending substantially in the width direction of the belt-shaped member 1 is projected to reflect the specular reflection light from the conveyor to the one-dimensional video camera. Is configured to receive light.

The image signal output from the one-dimensional video camera 4 is supplied to the image processing circuit 11, where the amplitude of the image signal is compared with a predetermined reference level to measure the position of the side edge of the strip-shaped member 1. The position information of the side edge thus detected is supplied to the arithmetic circuit 12 and stored in the memory. This operation is repeated every time the conveyor 2 moves by a predetermined distance, and the position data of the side edges at a number of positions in the longitudinal direction of the belt-shaped member 1 is stored.

In this way, the position information of the side edge of the strip-shaped member 1 stored in the memory of the arithmetic circuit 12 is read out, the width thereof is obtained over the entire length of the strip-shaped member, and the side at the front and rear ends of the strip-shaped member is obtained. The contour shapes of the front end and the rear end are obtained from the edge position information. When the width and the contour shape of the leading end and the rear end of the strip-shaped member 1 thus obtained are compared with the preset standard width and contour shape, and the measured width and contour shape are within the prescribed range, Is normal, and if it is out of the specified range, it is abnormal and an alarm signal is generated.

Further, in this example, by detecting the position of the belt-shaped member with respect to the conveyor 2 from the position data of the side edge of the belt-shaped member 1, the meandering state of the belt-shaped member,
It is also possible to measure whether or not it is properly placed on the conveyor.

[0019]

As described above, according to the present invention, the light emitted from the light source device is obliquely projected onto the conveyor so as to be a linear light extending substantially in the width direction of the belt-shaped member,
The one-dimensional video camera is arranged so as to receive the reflected light from the conveyor, and the position of the side edge of the belt-shaped member is measured by processing the image signal from the one-dimensional video camera. Since the light reflected on the surface of the belt-shaped member hardly enters the one-dimensional video camera, the image signal changes abruptly at the side edge of the belt-shaped member and is affected by the color and condition of the surface of the belt-shaped member and the conveyor. Without it, the position of the side edge of the strip-shaped member can be measured easily and very accurately.
Further, from the side edge position information measured in this way, information such as the width of the strip-shaped member, the contour shape, and the posture of the strip-shaped member on the conveyor can be accurately measured.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram for explaining a basic measuring principle of a shape measuring method for a strip-shaped member according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a waveform diagram showing an image signal output from a one-dimensional video camera.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a configuration of an embodiment of a shape measuring device for a strip-shaped member according to the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 band member 2 belt conveyor 3 Laser light source device 4 1-dimensional video camera 11 Image processing circuit 12 arithmetic circuit

Claims (5)

[Claims] 1. When measuring the shape of a belt-shaped member placed on a conveyor, the light from the light source device is formed into a linear shape extending in a width direction substantially orthogonal to the longitudinal direction of the belt-shaped member. Reflected light from a one-dimensional video camera that is projected from the longitudinal direction of the member at a predetermined acute angle to the plane of the conveyor and is arranged so that the line of the reflected light reflected on the conveyor surface matches the field of view of the one-dimensional video camera. In the width direction of the strip-shaped member by image-processing the image signal output from the one-dimensional video camera while relatively moving the strip-shaped member, the light source device and the one-dimensional video camera in the longitudinal direction of the strip-shaped member. A method for measuring the shape of a strip-shaped member, which comprises obtaining the positions of side edges and measuring the width of the strip-shaped member from these positions. 2. The position of the side edge is measured at a plurality of positions along the longitudinal direction of the belt-shaped member to measure the width of the belt-shaped member over the entire length, the shape of the front and rear ends, and the posture with respect to the conveyor. The method for measuring the shape of a belt-shaped member according to claim 1. 3. The method for measuring the shape of a belt-shaped member according to claim 1, wherein the light source device and the one-dimensional video camera are fixed and the conveyor is moved at a constant speed. 4. The shape measuring method for a strip-shaped member according to claim 1, wherein the conveyor is stopped and the light source device and the one-dimensional video camera are moved at a constant speed. 5. A conveyor that carries a belt-shaped member whose shape is to be measured and moves at a constant speed in a substantially longitudinal direction of the belt-shaped member, and a linear shape that extends in a width direction substantially orthogonal to the longitudinal direction of the belt-shaped member. A light source device that projects light from the longitudinal direction of the belt-shaped member at a predetermined acute angle with respect to the plane of the conveyor, and a one-dimensional video camera arranged to receive the reflected light reflected on the surface of the conveyor. An image processing circuit that obtains the position of the side edge in the width direction of the strip-shaped member by performing image processing on the image signal output from this one-dimensional video camera, and a side edge in the width direction of the strip-shaped member obtained by this image processing circuit. An apparatus for measuring the shape of a belt-shaped member, comprising: an arithmetic circuit for measuring the width, shape and attitude of the belt-shaped member from a position.