SCHOTT solutions no. 2/2010 > Machine Vision

The SCHOTT “High Brightness LED Light Line”, a high quality illumination solution for industrial image processing, is used at the Albuquerque, New Mexico, U.S.A. site to inspect solar panel cover glasses for possible edge chips, cracks, foreign material and other material defects prior to assembly. Photo: SCHOTT/K. Malone
Spotlight on Quality
SCHOTT develops highly specialized lighting solutions for complex machine vision applications – and draws the appropriate expertise from its own production requirements.
Thilo Horvatitsch
Lighting is simultaneously the most important and most underestimated component in a machine vision system. It often makes the difference between the success or failure of the whole application,” emphasizes Carl Van Dommelen. The Business Manager is driving SCHOTT’s business forward in North America with lighting solutions for industrial image processing and often holds training courses on machine vision. With the type of automated quality inspections that are used in manufacturing, cameras and computers are able to monitor whether razor-thin semi-conductor components have been applied properly to silicon plates or the surfaces of wooden panels meet stringent quality requirements.

The SCHOTT “High Brightness LED Light Line”, a high quality illumination solution for industrial image processing, is used at the Albuquerque, New Mexico, U.S.A. site to inspect solar panel cover glasses for possible edge chips, cracks, foreign material and other material defects prior to assembly. Photo: SCHOTT/K. Malone
In Albuquerque, the line lights are being used to inspect cover glasses for solar panels for possible edge chips, cracks, foreign material or other material defects before assembly. The “High Brightness LED Light Line” installed here can be adapted to suit a specific customer and allows for inspection widths of between 300 mm and 3 meters. With inspection widths of 1.8 meters, this met the requirements at SCHOTT Solar just perfectly. In addition, the very even light distribution and compact design of the line light allowed it to integrate in a way that saves space. The standard module is used in diffuse applications for so-called dark-field illumination. The light hits the glass panes from the side at a very low angle and highlights the edges and material structures quite powerfully. In this case, scratches can easily be seen against a dark background.

LED Light Line products are also used for reflective applications – here, for surface testing of solar cells at the SCHOTT Solar German site in Alzenau. Photo: SCHOTT
Technical solutions like these can be tailored to meet different needs, from the use of different colored leds to housing designs, and they are also capable of adapting to harsh environmental conditions. Here, the LED also shows its strengths as a long-lasting light source that can be combined with CCD cameras quite well. Of course, there are always challenges. To help light-emitting diodes stand up to their arch enemy, heat, SCHOTT has developed an optimized temperature management system that uses air or water cooling to improve the service life and light output of the LEDs. “We are constantly working to improve the efficiency, performance, light intensity and homogeneity,” Carl Van Dommelen notes. And the next development is already knocking on the door: SCHOTT is planning to introduce new types of LEDs in the near future that offer twice or three times the light intensity.
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Machine Vision
Machine Vision
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carl.vandommelen@us.schott.com
carl.vandommelen@us.schott.com