Surface quality inspection method and apparatus
AssigneeI.M.A. Industria Macchine Automatiche S.P.A.
InventorCarlo Zaniboni
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A method and an apparatus for the surface quality inspection of the external surface of at least one component for inhalers or vaporizers, in particular a cartomizer for electronic cigarettes, verifies whether there are surface imperfections on the external surface of the components.
Claims15
A method to inspect surface quality of an external cylindrical surface of at least one component of inhalers or vaporizers, in particular a cartomizer for electronic cigarettes, said at least one component comprising a hollow cylinder having an internal surface opposite to the external cylindrical surface and delimiting an internal compartment, wherein said method comprises the steps of:
- providing said at least one component arranged in a housing seat;
- removing said at least one component from said housing seat, by holding it exclusively from the internal surface, thereby keeping the external cylindrical surface freely exposed therearound;
- positioning and maintaining said at least one component in an optical inspection zone outside said housing seat;
- rotating said at least one component in order to position it in at least two optical inspection positions angularly distinct with respect to each other;
- acquiring at least one image of a portion of said external surface in each of said at least two optical inspection positions;
- and
- processing the images acquired in order to verify if said at least one component has at least one surface imperfection on said external surface,
- wherein said acquiring step comprises acquiring at least one respective image of said external surface with at least two optical acquisition devices framing said at least one component from at least two opposite positions with respect to said optical inspection zone.
An apparatus to inspect surface quality of an external cylindrical surface of at least one component of inhalers or vaporizers, in particular a cartomizer for electronic cigarettes, said at least one component comprising a hollow cylinder having an internal surface opposite to the external cylindrical surface, and delimiting an internal compartment, the apparatus comprising:
- at least one gripper configured to remove said at least one component from a housing seat by gripping said at least one component from said internal surface and bring said at least one component to an optical inspection zone outside said housing seat, said at least one gripper further being configured to rotate said at least one component to position the at least one component in at least two optical inspection positions which are angularly distinct with respect to each other, said rotation being made while gripping the at least one component exclusively from the internal surface, thereby keeping the external cylindrical surface freely exposed therearound,
- at least two optical acquisition devices configured to frame said at least one component from two opposite positions with respect to said optical inspection zone in order to acquire at least one respective image of said external surface, and
- a processing unit configured to process said respective images acquired by said at least two optical acquisition devices in order to verify if said at least one component has at least one surface imperfection on said external surface.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.