Apparatus and method for registration control of assembled components

An apparatus for fabricating a composite article from a plurality of components so that selected components thereof have positional relationships within acceptable ranges, the apparatus comprising:

• a fabrication line with a machine direction and a transverse direction, the fabrication line comprising a supply of each of said plurality of components, means for withdrawing a first one of said plurality of components from its supply and depositing it at a first point in said fabrication line, means for moving the thus deposited first component along the machine direction of the fabrication line, means for withdrawing a second one of said plurality of components from its supply and adding the thus withdrawn second component to the first component at a second point in said fabrication line downstream of said first point to form an in-process article, and means for withdrawing each of the remaining components from the respective supply thereof and sequentially adding it to a previously formed in-process article to form a new in-process article until all of said plurality of components have been added, thereby forming a composite article;
• means for creating a two-dimensional image of the composite article at a single station in said fabrication line, said means for creating a two-dimensional image comprising a high shutter speed camera having a matrix of photodiodes disposed therein whereby said matrix of photodiodes electronically produces a still picture image of said composite article;
• means for analyzing at least portions of said electronically produced still picture image to establish the location of at least one edge of at least one of said selected components in said composite article with respect to the transverse direction of said composite article in said fabrication line and to establish the location of at least one edge of at least one of said selected components in said composite article with respect to the machine direction of said composite article in said fabrication line;
• means for comparing each of the thus determined locations to a respective predetermined desired location to determine any variation between the respective determined location and the respective desired location;
• means for generating a control signal responsive to any thus determined variation which is outside of the acceptable range for the location of the respective component;
• and
• means for utilizing each thus generated control signal to control the addition of the respective component to the in-process articles on the fabrication line to promote the actual position of the respective component in subsequently produced composite articles being within its acceptable range.