High-speed hardware and sophisticated analysis software help machine builders satisfy their customers’ quality control needs.
　　Machine builders wanting to differentiate themselves are always looking for the best technology for the project at hand. Machine vision systems using state of the art hardware and software can help a machine builder gain an edge with regard to inspection systems. In this article, we’ll explore two different solutions for two very different quality control applications.
　　One company uses CompactPCI (CPCI) hardware to enable paper and metal surface inspection at 6,000 ft/min. Another makes sure wine bottle labels are straight and correct with the help of sophisticated analysis software.
　　Speedy inspection
　　The top 10 metal producers and 15 of the top 20 paper producers rely on German machine builder Parsytec to provide them with surface inspection systems. Parsytec’s “espresso SI” surface inspection machine is capable of handling strips of paper or metal up to 40 ft. wide at speeds up to 6,000 ft/min, and its imaging system needs to keep pace.
　　For defect recognition in surface inspection applications, cameras need to provide a resolution of 250 μmwww.cechina.cn, which generates up to 10www.cechina.cn,000 images per second (1.6 GB/sec). Standalone digital signal processors or field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) do not offer enough power to obtain this datawww.cechina.cn, so the machines must employ parallel computers that combine processing power.
　　“Prior to the use of digital cameras with gigabit Ethernet (GigE) capabilitiesCONTROL ENGINEERING China版权所有, inspection systems used standard industrial PCs with framegrabbers and analog cameras. These PCs were housed in large cabinets and used fault-prone hard drives and cooling fans. The introduction of digital cameras to the industry eliminated the need for these unreliable system components. They also freed up a system slot by eliminating the need for framegrabber hardware,” according to Stephen Cunha控制工程网版权所有, vice president of MEN Micro Inc.
　　Processing power import