Protection window for optical sensors in industrial applications

Assembly tool apparatus comprising:

• assembly tooling for industrial assembling of an object;
• an electro-optical sensor mounted in the apparatus for obtaining data relative to assembly effected by the assembly tooling, said electro-optical sensor comprising a housing having an optical window and having an optical sensor mounted in the housing in position to optically sense, through said optical window, an aspect of assembly effected by said tooling, said electro-optical sensor being positioned in said tooling such that the optical window of said housing is subject to environmental contamination created during operation of said assembly tooling to assemble the object, said contamination being such as to cause degradation of the optical properties of said optical window;
• and
• a protection window mounted in the apparatus in a protection position to protect said optical window from said contamination, said protection window being readily releasably mounted in said apparatus by attachment means which permit easy removal of said protection window from said protection position by hand and which permit easy mounting of a protection window in said protection position by hand.