Fastener inspection system

A method for automatically inspecting and sorting a plurality of fasteners, said method comprising:

• providing a rotary table having an outer periphery, an inner periphery, and a plurality of radial slots extending from the outer periphery to the inner periphery, each radial slot being configured to receive a fastener;
• providing an anti-jam mechanism positioned along the outer periphery, the anti-jam mechanism comprises an anti-jam arm;
• rotating the rotary table;
• sequentially delivering a plurality of fasteners into the radial slots, one fastener per slot;
• operating at least one vision inspection camera to capture an unobstructed side-view image of each fastener after each fastener has been delivered to a radial slot;
• analyzing the captured image to determine whether the fastener shown in the captured image is defective;
• removing any defective fastener from the rotary table when the defective fastener has been identified;
• and
• collecting the non-defective fasteners on the rotary table,
• wherein the anti-jam arm is having a curved edge positioned adjacent to the outer periphery of the rotary table and the anti-jam arm is spring-loaded so that the curved edge can retract away from the outer periphery of the rotary table when the fasteners are jammed.

A method for automatically inspecting and sorting a plurality of fasteners, said method comprising:

• providing a rotary table having an outer periphery, an inner periphery, and a plurality of radial slots extending from the outer periphery to the inner periphery, each radial slot being configured to receive a fastener;
• rotating the rotary table;
• providing a loading mechanism for sequentially delivering the fasteners to the radial slots;
• providing an anti-jam mechanism for preventing jamming as the fasteners are being delivered to the radial slots;
• wherein the anti-jam mechanism comprises an anti-jam arm having a curved edge positioned adjacent to the outer periphery of the rotary table, and the anti-jam arm being spring-loaded so that the curved edge can retract away from the outer periphery of the rotary table when the fasteners are jammed;
• providing at least one vision inspection camera operable to capture a slide view image of each fastener after the fastener has been delivered to a radial slot;
• providing an image analyzer operatively connected to said at least one vision inspection camera for analyzing the captured image;
• analyzing the captured image to determine whether the fastener shown in the captured image is defective;
• and
• providing a sorting mechanism for removing any defective fastener from the rotary table when the defective fastener has been identified by the image analyzer;
• and inspecting a plurality of fasteners using said inspection system;
• and separating any defective fastener from the inspected fasteners.