Apparatus and method for web twist defect correction
AssigneeCurt G. Joa, Inc.
InventorsAdam D. DeNoble, Jeffrey Dale Brown, Robert E. Andrews, Gottfried Jason Hohm, Dennis J. Faucher
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Apparatus and methods are provided to minimize waste and improve quality and production in web processing operations. The apparatus and methods provide defect detection in deposition of acquisition material, which on current machines frequently flips and is difficult to detect when it has flipped causing manufacturers to scrap thousands of products. Using the present invention, defects are able to be detected by discerning a difference in the appearance from side to side with a vision camera, and an acquisition inverter can flip the material to a correct orientation.
Claims26
An apparatus for orienting an incoming web having a first side and a second side to a predetermined orientation of the first side relative to the second side, wherein an image of the first side as imaged with a camera is different from an image of the second side as imaged with a camera, the apparatus comprising:
- a rotatable web guide configured to pass the incoming web therethrough;
- a lighting system configured to highlight features of the incoming web that differentiate the first side from the second side;
- a vision system having a camera configured to capture an image of either the top side or the bottom side of an untwisted portion of the incoming web and converting the output of the camera to a two-dimensional array of numbers representing pixels corresponding to luminous intensity levels at points in the image;
- a controller configured to:
- process the image captured by the vision system by thresholding each of the pixels in the array to provide a two-dimensional array of light and dark pixels;
- evaluate the two-dimensional array of light and dark pixels to determine whether the image captured is of the first side or the second side of the incoming web;
- if the incoming web is not in the predetermined orientation, control the rotatable web guide to introduce a twist in the incoming web to orient the incoming web in the predetermined orientation.
An apparatus for orienting an incoming web having a first side and a second side to a predetermined orientation of the first side relative to the second side, wherein an image of the first side is different from an image of the second side as imaged with a camera, the apparatus comprising:
- a rotatable web guide configured to pass the incoming web therethrough;
- a vision system configured to capture an image of a top side or a bottom side of the incoming web oriented as passed through the rotatable web guide and to convert the image to a two-dimensional array of pixels representing the image;
- a controller configured to:
- process the image captured by the vision system by thresholding each of the pixels to provide a two-dimensional array of light and dark pixels;
- determine whether the image captured is of the first side or the second side based on an analysis of a plurality of the pixels in the two dimensional array of light and dark pixels;
- if the incoming web is not in the predetermined orientation, controlling the rotatable web guide to flip the incoming web to the proper orientation.
A method of orienting a running web to a predetermined orientation of the first side relative to the second side, wherein the first side is different from the second side as visualized by a camera, the method comprising:
- illuminating the web to highlight features of interest that differentiate the first side from the second side;
- capturing an image of a top side or a bottom side of the running web in an image capture zone and converting the output of the camera to a two-dimensional array of numbers representing the image;
- processing the two-dimensional array by thresholding the two-dimensional array to identify light and dark pixels and analyzing the light and dark pixels to determine whether the image is of the first side or the second side by identifying the highlighted features of interest;
- determining whether the running web is in the predetermined orientation in the image capture zone;
- and
- if the first side is not in the predetermined orientation in the image capture zone, actuating a rotatable web guide to flip the running web to reorient the first side relative to the second side.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.