Paint inspection

Particularly with shiny surfaces, a faultless production chain is expected in order to lend a sophisticated visual appearance to the final product. For fully automatic defect detection on car bodies and attachments, the reflectCONTROL inspection system is used. The system projects a striped pattern onto the surface. Deviations caused by defect are recorded with two cameras and evaluated via software.

In order to ensure consistent color of different front panels, color sensors from Micro-Epsilon are used. The sensors inspect the color of the kitchen fronts in the painting plant. Color sensors ensure that the color shade is within the specified tolerances. Even the smallest color deviations imperceptible to the human eye can be detected reliably.

Before installing front aprons, Micro-Epsilon color sensors check if the color of the attachment matches the body color. Different color groups can be defined to cover all coatings.

Measuring the color of liquid paint is extremely complex. To date, paints have been typically applied on a test area first and then measured only after the drying process in order to achieve reliable measurement results. If the measurement results reveal that the paints are faulty, the paint con­tainers must be mixed again or even disposed of which partly involves long waiting times until a new measurement process can be started. In order to accelerate this process, Micro­Epsilon has developed a sys­tem that enables the measurement of liquid paint during the production process.

This application therefore includes the colorCONTROL ACS7000 color spectrometer for color measurements and the optoNCDT 1420-­50 laser triangulation sensor for distance measurements. The latter is ideally sui­ted to this application due to its compact size and excellent performance. A linear unit offers automatic readjustments.