Category: Applications

VisionGauge®’s Automation Capabilities

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VisionGauge® features an automation module with extensive communication capabilities for full 2-way handshaking with a robot, cell controller, or part-positioning equipment, for example. Connect to external devices by TCP/IP over Ethernet or wireless, digital I/Os, RS232, etc… to automate program control, loading programs, reporting, trigger/signal management, and much more.

VisionGauge® systems can easily be dropped into an existing automated cell to provide advanced inspection and measurement capabilities, including those provided by our patented CAD Auto-Align™, CAD Auto-Pass/Fail™ and Tooth Checker™ tools.

Learn more about VisionGauge®’s complete inspection automation capabilities.

Contact us with the details of your application!

Introducing VisionGauge®’s Patented “Tooth Checker™” tool

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We’re happy to introduce VisionGauge®’s patented “Tooth Checker™” tool, specially adapted to check parts with teeth. This innovative new tool automatically locates, to very high accuracy, the crests and / or roots of the teeth and determines if they are within their tolerance band. It can also determine all other part characteristics, such as tooth pitch, thread depth, major & minor diameters, etc…

Bone screw teeth verification with the VisionGauge® “Tooth Checker™” tool
Bone screw teeth verification with the VisionGauge® “Tooth Checker™” tool

The Tooth Checker tool can verify that either crests, roots, or both, are in tolerance, using these crest & root points that the Tooth Checker tool has found, it can then automatically determine all other part characteristics:

VisionGauge Tooth Checker Nomenclature
Automatically check all part characteristics

This powerful new tool is perfect for quickly and accurately checking:

  • bone screws,
  • medical rasps,
  • gears,
  • fluted instruments,
  • threads & fittings,
  • and much more!

 

Click to view more information about the VisionGauge® Tooth Checker™, or download the application note.

New Min/Max Tool for Automatic Part Alignment – Application Note

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The VisionGauge® Digital Optical Comparator’s new “Min/Max” software tool is the perfect solution for automatically aligning a part using a rotary stage. The tool can be setup to rotate the part and find the position that either minimizes or maximizes a dimension.

Common examples include the following:

Rotary stage and workholding for turnkey runout measurement application.
Rotary stage and workholding for turnkey runout measurement application.
In this case, the Min/Max tool is used to align the flats on the part perfectly horizontally, completely automatically

 

Automatic alignment of a turbine blade fir tree
Automatic alignment of a turbine blade fir tree

 

With this new Min/Max tool, it’s extremely easy to setup an automated routine for the alignment of any kind of part. Also, results are extremely repeatable. This advanced tool uses high-order interpolation for very accurate subsampling. This means that the position of best alignment can be found very accurately, at any orientation (not just at the sampled orientations).

This new tool is completely integrated with all of the VisionGauge® Digital Optical Comparator’s other tools so that all of its results can easily be recoded, transmitted, databased, sent to Excel™ or any other data capture application, put in a report, etc…

This new Min/Max tool further increases the wide range of applications that can easily and reliably be solved using the VisionGauge® Digital Optical Comparator.

Click to view this application note as a downloadable .pdf.

Extended Travel 700-Series VisionGauge® Digital Optical Comparator featured in Modern Machine Shop

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A new article about the Extended Travel 700-Series VisionGauge® Digital Optical Comparator has just appeared in Modern Machine Shop.

Larger Digital Comparator Model with Trunnion-Table Design

The 700 Series VisionGauge® Digital Optical Comparator 5-axis inspection and measurement system is the ideal solution for the automatic inspection of parts with complex geometries.
The 700 Series VisionGauge® Digital Optical Comparator 5-axis inspection and measurement system is the ideal solution for the automatic inspection of parts with complex geometries. The Extended 24" x 24" x 24" travel machine with trunnion configuration for big and heavy parts is shown above with a single monitor.

The article is also available in pdf format.

700 Series VisionGauge® Digital Optical Comparator featured in Aerospace and Defense Technology

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Please note that a new article about the 5-axis 700 series VisionGauge® Digital Optical Comparator has just appeared in the February 2016 edition of Aerospace and Defense Technology:

700 Series VisionGauge® Digital Optical Comparator Replaces CMM Inspection

You can also download the article in .pdf format.

The 5-axis 700 Series VisionGauge Digital Optical Comparator
The 5-axis 700 Series VisionGauge Digital Optical Comparator

Updated information for the extended-travel 5-axis 700 Series VisionGauge® machine

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Please note that updated information is available for the extended-travel 5-axis 700 Series VisionGauge® machine.

This is a trunnion-based machine. It has a 24″ x 24″ x 24″ envelope and is designed to accommodate parts that weigh up to 100 lbs.

The 700 Series VisionGauge® Digital Optical Comparator 5-axis inspection and measurement system is the ideal solution for the automatic inspection of parts with complex geometries.
The 700 Series VisionGauge® Digital Optical Comparator 5-axis inspection and measurement system is the ideal solution for the automatic inspection of parts with complex geometries. The Extended 24″ x 24″ x 24″ travel machine with trunnion configuration for big and heavy parts is shown above.

 

Note that you can obtain an updated product brochure (with specifications, etc) in .pdf format.

Also, you can see a video about our 5-axis 700 Series VisionGauge® systems below:

The extended-travel 5-axis 700 Series VisionGauge® machine is the perfect solution for a number of applications, including the inspection of cooling holes in IGT (Industrial Gas Turbine) parts.

“A New Paradigm for Aero Engine Holes Inspection” – Case Study

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A new “case study” article about the 5-axis 700 series VisionGauge® Digital Optical Comparator has just appeared in the September 2015 edition of Manufacturing Engineering – Aerospace & Defense 2015 Yearbook:

A New Paradigm for Aero Engine Hole Inspection

In this case study, Paradigm Precision (a large aerospace sub-contractor to GE, UT, Rolls Royce and many others) explains how they are using the VisionGauge® system to carry out 100% inspection of cooling holes on a wide range of complex 5-axis parts, including blades, vanes and heat shields.

They mention that they are achieving a repeatability of +/-0.0001″.

You can also download the article in .pdf format.

The 700 Series 5-axis VisionGauge® Digital Optical Comparator inspecting various types of holes.
The 700 Series 5-axis VisionGauge® Digital Optical Comparator inspecting various types of holes.

New 40X magnification for 300 Series VisionGauge® Digital Optical Comparator

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Please note that we have developed a new 40X magnification of our 300 Series VisionGauge® Digital Optical Comparator.

This new higher-magnification configuration was developed to meet the requirements of various higher-magnification applications, such as the fast and accurate inspection and measurement of diamond Electrical Discharge Machined Polycrystalline Diamond (PCD) and Cubic Boron Nitride (CBN) cutting tool inserts.

Updated 300 Series literature may be found in .pdf format here.

VisionGauge 300-series Digital Optical Comparators are Field-of-View Systems that are ideal for smaller parts
VisionGauge 300-series Digital Optical Comparators are Field-of-View Systems that are ideal for smaller parts