Extrusion Inspection System

This automated inspection system was designed to take a range of extruded trim parts directly off the customer’s production line and inspect each end for damage and dimensional issues.

The system was installed inline with the extrusion machine and cutting system and would inspect the parts as they were transferred to packaging. A pair of 2 Keyence 2MP monochrome cameras connected to an XG-X controller would look at the ends from above and with backlights below to check for overall length and end damage. The camera was fix-mounted on the left, and mounted on a shuttling ball screw system on the right that elongated the inspection conveyor and allowed the 2nd camera and backlight to move to a specified position from 17” to 74” from the fixed camera. This was designed to accommodate known length range of the parts. Good parts continued off the end of the machine for packaging and bad parts caused the system to stop the conveyor system for an operator intervention.

The system was built from a welded steel frame due to the moving parts. All controls were housed in a top mounted N-12 control enclosure with PLC controls and an HMI for part length selection and data readout. The operator would input a new part length on the HMI and then depress the two safety touch buttons to move the system to the required position for confirmation and setup.