Quality control station for a sheet element processing machine and illumination unit for the quality control station
AssigneeBobst Mex SA
InventorsMatthieu RICHARD, Francis PILLOUD
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A quality control station (2) for a sheet element processing machine, having at least one camera (6) arranged for capturing images of sheet elements (4) transported through the quality control station (2), and further having an illumination unit (5) with at least one light emitter (16) and two reflectors (12, 14), the illumination unit (5) directing light onto a viewing area of the camera (6) such that the illumination intensity is constant despite changing media thickness. An illumination unit for such quality control station is disclosed.
Claims14
A quality control station for a sheet element processing machine, the station comprising:
- at least one camera arranged for capturing images of sheet elements transported through the quality control station and;
- an illumination unit with at least one light emitter and two reflectors, the illumination unit is configured for directing light onto a viewing area of the camera so that a first portion of the light is emitted by the light emitter towards the first reflector and is reflected towards the viewing area, a second portion of the light is emitted by the light emitter towards the second reflector and is reflected towards the viewing area and a third portion of the light is emitted by the light directly towards the viewing area such that the illumination intensity of the viewing area is constant despite changing media thickness.
An illumination unit configured for use in a quality control station, comprising:
- a base carrying at least one light emitter extending along a length of the illumination unit, and two reflectors extending along the light emitter the two reflectors being arranged to face each other;
- each reflector has a conic contour when viewed in a cross section;
- the illumination unit being configured for providing an essentially uniform distribution of the irradiance on a rectangular area corresponding to an illuminated field, the illuminated field extending in a media feed direction by a selected distance, and the uniform distribution of the irradiance being present at different levels above the illuminated field up to a level which is above the illuminated field by the selected distance.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.