High Speed Robotic Inspection System

Cincinnati Automation utilized Fanuc robots and Keyence vision systems to build a pair of twin inspection cells for a manufacturer of small, machined parts. The two, identical machines, have the capability of picking and inspecting over 100 parts per minute each from the custom designed material handling systems that were also integrated into each machine. The machines used an auditing methodology for material handling and the inspection process. The conveyors utilized a recycling method where only properly position parts were picked by the robots and all others were recycled through until every part was inspected.

The Fanuc robots were M-1ia/o.5S model “spider” robots with 4-axis pick and place systems and the integrated Fanuc robotic vision was used for identification during part pick up. The machine vision systems were 4-camera Keyence XG 7000 series systems utilizing a multitude of tools to inspect for surface defects, thickness, and feature recognition. Upon inspection, each part was the ejected into either a fail bin, or a pass area with a batch counting and packing system.