3D Sheet Metal Inspector Introduced by CAItech

San Jose, CA, Sept. 3, 2002 - CAItech, a Silicon Valley manufacturer, introduced the largest in its series of industrial inspection and scanning machines.  The Model 600C can inspect parts having a maximum dimension of 600 mm (24").  The Model 600C continues the CAItech collaboration with Optimet Metrology.   Like the smaller Model 150C, the 600C uses the Optimet line scan sensor.  It is capable of scanning 16,000 points per second, each point accurate to +/-10 microns.

The Model 600C was designed to inspect sheet metal parts where thin metal sheet is folded into a box-like shape.  Each side of the box shape is a flat surface penetrated by small features such as holes.  Surfaces like this are difficult to inspect. The bend angle of a surface can vary by half a degree.  Yet the location of holes on the folded surface must be measured accurate to a thousandth of an inch.  It is this combination of high accuracy needed for small features while big surfaces have large variations that makes inspection so difficult.

In CAItech inspection machines, the part is first set up by an operator.  Later, when the part is inspected, the machine goes through the same scanning motions as it did during setup.  In setting up Model 600C, the part is first scanned coarsely, letting the operator view a rough image of the part.  Then he circles regions of interest -- such as locations of holes -- on the coarse scan, instructing the machine to scan these regions using a finer scan pitch.  The operator also identifies the flat sheet metal surfaces and the small features that penetrate these surfaces during setup.

The result is accurate hole location even when the bend angles aren't right.  Later when a part of the same shape is inspected, the CAItech machine scans the part coarsely in addition to fine scans of small features.  Analysis software determines the bend angle of the large surfaces, calculates the location of small surfaces relative to the large surfaces and then determines hole locations by combining both.

Computer Aided Inspection Technologies, Inc. is a privately held California corporation manufacturing next-generation automated inspection equipment. Established in 1997, CAItech is located in San Jose, CA in the heart of California's Silicon Valley electronics industry.
CAItech can be reached at (408) 226-0642, or on the web at www.caitech.com .