Test specimens in the right light

drylin® linear axes in high-speed test equipment

Visual inspection of small components in very large quantities: The Gefra GmbH in Friedewald/Westerwaldhas made the automation of this task its business - thereby making it successful worldwide. For the electrical adjustment of lighting units, Gefra uses complete linear drive units from the drylin® product range.
 
How to check for damage 900 screws or 700 injection moulded parts per minute? Those who ask this question will find the correct answer at the Gefra GmbH. Because the company, founded in 1995, specialises in developing automated equipment for the fast and accurate visual inspection and measurement of components.
 
Reason for founding the company was the knowledge that this need exists. Dipl.- Thomas Rothweiler, founder and managing partner of the company, advises production companies in streamlining and automation. At the same time, he notes that at the end of highly automated processes it is often necessary to examine by the human eye and sort manually.

Mechanics and computational speed set technical limits

With the continuous advancement of equipment, the mechanical system, i.e., the feeding at such a fast pace, encountered its limits in the past. In some cases, the computing speed of the available controls also reached its limit, as is evident when you consider that sometimes eight or ten cameras inspect the test item and the control must decide within milliseconds whether it is "good" or "bad".

Electrical adjustment of lighting

Even when each machine is individually adapted to the wishes of the customer, Thomas Rothweiler emphasises that it is not about special mechanical engineering: "Our machines are based on a modular principle and we use very many identical parts. “
 
A recent advancement concerns the lighting by which the test specimens get the right light for the cameras. The spacing of the lights to the test object varies depending on the product, and the user adjusts the lights manually using an adjusting wheel with scale. The aim of Thomas Rothweiler was to integrate this process in the controller and thus make it reproducible. In this way, not only manual process steps are saved, but possible incorrect settings are also excluded. Even more important was the ability to integrate the position of the lights in the documentation.

Lubricant-free operation

A very important criterion for the selection was the lubricant-free operation of lead screw and carriage: Since the lighting units are directly above, adjacent and below the test specimens, the drives must not release any foreign substances that could affect the inspection process.
 
Equally important was the compact design of the drive units. Thomas Rothweiler: "As we offer the electrical adjustment as an option for the future, they must allow the integration in the existing structure. Important to us is also the fact that we procure the entire unit with motor, carriage and mounting, ready for installation from a single source. “

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