With more than 30,000 distinct parts from hundreds of suppliers, a typical new car presents one of modern manufacturing’s biggest challenges. The rapid adoption of innovative new technologies and components like electric drivetrains and sophisticated driver assistance systems isn’t making the manufacturer’s job any easier.
The demand for new solutions has virtually every carmaker and every player in the $2.1 billion automotive parts industry searching for solutions that can help them keep pace with the demand for greater efficiency, higher quality and better traceability. In many applications, the answer is automation.
Automation is hardly new to the auto industry—after all, the industry is widely considered to be the birthplace of the modern assembly line. What’s changing, however, is the penetration of automation technologies into more manufacturing processes. One of the most impactful changes is the widespread deployment of advanced vision systems, using fixed cameras and machine vision systems to streamline data capture and handle sophisticated visual inspections throughout automotive manufacturing.
From a brake component manufacturer’s need to track parts through the supply chain to the electronics manufacturer’s need to perform detailed quality-control inspections to the carmaker’s need for complex 3D analysis, the range of solutions required throughout the automotive manufacturing industry demands a diverse portfolio of hardware and software solutions.
Fortunately, Zebra’s acquisition of Matrox Imaging has created a single-supplier solution with a full range of hardware and software tools to cover almost any vision application. Zebra has partnered with Integrys Limited in Canada to revolutionize the industries with its Machine Vision applications.
Here’s a brief look at some of the end-to-end inspection tasks that automotive manufacturers can accomplish with Zebra’s end-to-end portfolio of machine vision systems:
- Wire Harness Inspection: Today’s passenger cars and light trucks have a dozen or more wiring harnesses, hundreds of connectors, and 2.5 miles of wiring. Leading manufacturers are using machine vision tools to inspect and confirm every wire’s color, gauge, and sequence.
- Pin Inspection: Since the slightest inaccuracies in pin height or alignment can lead to glitchy performance or failure of electronic systems, manufacturers use machine vision solutions to verify that each connector is manufactured to precise specifications before components go on to final assembly.
- Conformal Coating: Innovative machine vision tools can instantly detect inconsistencies like cracks, bubbles, insufficient coverage, incomplete adhesion, and other potential problems in conformal coatings that protect printed circuit boards (PCBs) from corrosion and moisture.
- PCB Inspection: It takes hundreds of PCBs incorporating thousands of microchips and other electronic components to support a modern vehicle. Machine vision technology provides a high-speed, high-precision solution to ensure each critical PCB meets exacting specifications.
- Bead Inspection: Today, machine vision systems evaluate coverage, location, and continuity of the adhesive gaskets on high-speed production lines, detecting many flaws that would escape even the most experienced human inspectors.
- Display Inspections: The number and complexity of electronic displays increase with every new generation of passenger vehicles and light trucks. Machine vision tools can automatically inspect everything from orientation (is it properly installed) and function (is the display properly sequenced) to quality (are there failed pixels) and performance (does it meet standards for brightness, color, and more).
- Color Inspections: Machine vision tools can perform high-speed color inspections to confirm the correct color of everything from body panels and accessories to the color of packaging used for OEM parts that will be shipped to dealers’ service departments.
That’s a diverse list of machine vision applications. Still, it’s only a fraction of what manufacturers can accomplish with Zebra’s impressive portfolio of fixed industrial scanners, machine vision smart cameras, and software tools.
To learn more about the ways Zebra’s Machine Vision solutions, please contact our representative in Canada. Integrys’ advanced Machine Vision systems are reshaping quality control, production efficiency, and automation. Our solutions encompass object location, defect detection, and much more. With 20+ years of experience, we enhance productivity, assure quality, and reduce costs. To learn more about these cutting-edge Machine Vision solutions please contact us by clicking the button below.