High resolution sheet metal scanner with independent tracking light source

High-resolution sheet metal scanner using machine vision for checking the accuracy of openings drilled or punched into a mechanical part, comprising:

• a lower assembly which includes a housing;
• a planar scanning camera carriage assembly within said housing and capable of producing controlled movement of a camera carriage member in two orthogonal directions in a horizontal plane;
• a flat transparent support plate disposed on an upper side of said housing on which said part is to be supported for viewing;
• and a camera assembly mounted on said carriage member and oriented upwards including an imager for producing at least one line of pixels and focussing means for focussing said imager upon an upper surface of said support plate;
• a linear illuminator mounted above said lower assembly and providing a substantially uniform light along a line in one of said orthogonal directions, and being linearly movable in the other of said orthogonal directions across said support plate;
• camera carrier control means coupled with said camera carriage assembly and with said camera assembly for guiding said camera assembly in a controlled scanning pattern within said lower assembly housing and processing image data of said part based on pixels produced by said camera assembly imager;
• and
• illuminator control means for linearly moving said illuminator in the other of said orthogonal directions to track motion of said camera carriage member;
• wherein said linear illuminator is mechanically independent of said camera carriage assembly.