Led-based inspection of a painted surface finish

A method of inspecting a painted surface finish of a vehicle body, the method comprising:

• positioning the vehicle body with respect to an array of LED lighting fixtures each having two parallel LED tubes and four reflectors arranged at an angle of approximately 45 degrees relative to horizontal;
• generating light via the array with a predetermined set of lighting characteristics, including a striped pattern of exactly six stripes per LED lighting fixture, a beam angle of over 300 degrees, a color rendering index in the range of greater than 90, and a color temperature of 5000 degrees Kelvin (° K);
• illuminating the painted surface finish with the generated light from the array, including reflecting light from the parallel LED tubes using the four reflectors to generate six stripes of light per LED lighting fixture;
• inspecting the painted surface finish for defects while illuminating the component with the light from the array;
• and
• executing a control action with respect to the component when the component contains at least one of a threshold number and a threshold size of the defects.