One final thought regarding that service call. The customer expressed interest in “getting in some better equipment” to solve their inspection application.
Machine vision equipment and components certainly are advancing technologically. The computers continually get faster, the interfaces and configuration/programming environments are slicker and easier to use, lighting has become more creative, and advances in digital imaging make camera interfaces (where implemented) better.
Bottom line, though, unless the components actually have failed, that old system will continue to perform capable inspections. Ignoring the new, slick technology for a moment, unless the components and software are beyond 10 years old, the imaging and processing capability to execute a successful machine vision inspection is still there. If the part can be correctly illuminated and the image successfully captured, there are probably plenty of very adequate inspection algorithms in that old system to make it viable.
My point here is not to dissuade anyone from replacing their old systems. There are a lot of reasons this could be a technologically and economically wise decision for a given application. Many components are simply obsolete or out of production. Just don’t automatically expect that new technology will immediately fix the inspection. Ultimately, the correct application of prudently chosen algorithms on a well produced image is the only path to reliability and repeatability in machine vision integration.
One side note: in the dismal economic environment, perhaps a rework of that old system is sufficient to keep the machine running productively. Plenty of machine vision integrators are qualified and willing to perform service on older equipment.
David
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