)

'-.1c

J L J I

ISSJJJrll ^!

=5=-

{"J.lt lrLovtd, Aublr Potp.

./

Msion system sets sightson quality control forautomotive supplier

we're here t<> pr<>vicle," .s:rys M:tcVicar. "V'h:lt \\'e \\'ere lookil-tg

t<> clc>'uvas acld an<>ther level t<> en.srlre that'.s rvhut thel'get."'Whcn

there is zt mcxlel yenl change the c<>nrp:rr-ry'cmpl<>r,'s

a rneth<rl()l()gy to clevel<>p the pru)ces;s :rncl analvze it f l>r'p<>-

tential cltralify issues ancl then l<x>ks lrt \\ 'uys it curr l)ut c()un-

tenne:rsules in place to clctect ()r preventen'()rs.

"A lr>t of wh:rt we clo is ntrts ancl lx>lts,ancl there's a lot of relatively stanclarclwzrys t() err()r-pr>c>f threuclccl fa.stener in-st:rllation," .s:ry.s MacVicar. "\fhen it c<>rt-rc.sto cle:rling with wire harne.sses ancl h<>.seclzrn-rps it wars very clifhcr-rlt to come Lrpwith t<><>ling ancl ecpripment th:rt cor-rlcl ei-ther automate it or proviclc :r clecent levcl<>f erx>r proofing ()r el'l'()l' cletecti<>n."

Previ<>trsly, Atrtritns reliecl ()n :r finul

CANAVISION'S 32-CI \M ERA VISIONSYSTEM COVERS MORE THAN 60POINTS OF INSPECTION AND 20P IECES OF ENGINE HARDWARE.

6

z

=z

c

Atrtrans Corporation takcs jt,tst-in-tirne rleliuer))to another lcuel ^t its Ingersoll, Ont. plar-rt.

utrans m:tr-trfacttrres engine poweltr:rin :rssemblie.sfrrr CAMI Alrt<>rrrotivc (a ioint ventLlrc ltctwccn Gen-eral Motols ancl Strzrrki), which i.s loczrtccl :rcr>.ss tlreroacl ancl mLrst pl'()chrce :r neu, engine in the time

i t t:tkcs t() plcpulc thc vchicle fcrr enginc irr.stall:rt i<>n <>n thcas.sernlrly line - approxir-nately two-ancl-half hc>urs.

"[Atrtran.s] r'eceivc's an <>rcler every rnin-ute fi'om CAMI," s:ry.s Pr<rces.s Er-rginec-ringManager.feff MacVicur. "'What we're lttrilcl-ing on tl-re line is whut tl-rey're l>trilcling <>nthe l ine."

\fith 16 diff'erent c<>ml>inzrtic>ns, eaclrwitl-r BO v:lriutions, zrcl()ss three r-r-roclels -

Cl-revr<>lct lJqtrinox, P<>nti:rc'ltrrrcnt :rnclStrzr-rki XL7 - err()r pr<>ofing ancl cletec-ti<>n is a t()p pri<>riry f<>r Ar,rtran.s, whicl-ris hcarclclr,rurfterccl in Smyrn:r, 'l'cnn. :rnclopenccl it.s 70.000 .sqLrare fc><>t Canzrclianfacility in 19139.

"The cust<)lner expect.s <>n-time cleliveryancl 100 per cent <pality ancl tlnt'.s wl-rat

18 Soptsmber 2OO7 advanced manufactur ing

visual inspection, which even at itsbest is not 100 per cent effective andaccording to MacVicar, can be verysubjective.

The company concluded that stan-dard sensing devices wouldn't do thetrick, so Autrans began the search fora vision system with a degree of intel-ligence that could be programmed tolook at the type of variations in theengines. "'We wanted another level ofproduction protection for our custom-er," says MacVicar.

"'W'e saw linstalling a vision systemlas the next step as far as providingour customefs the most efficient pro-cess of assembling the product," saysMacVicar. "'We saw this as the tool toLlse."

After some trial and error. Autranssettled on Canavision, a multi-camera vision and assembly vali-dation system from Markham, Ont.-based Global Controls.

MacVicar says the Canavision system offered the capabilitiesthe company wanted including archiving all the vision dataagainst a reference number that matched the vehicle. This gavethem traceabiliry and history to €Io back and look at things aswell as a high comfort level for the maintenance and engineer-ing departments to be able to go in and reprogram or modi$zthe system.

The system is an intelligent vision system that delivers withan anay of multiple cameras - 32 in the case of [s62n5 -

more than 60 points of inspection that cover 20 optional piecesof hardware on the engines, such a block heater, if the vehicleit is destined for was ordered with one.

It runs on a 3.4G Pentium IV Intel motherboard, achievinga speed of approximately one second per 24O local featurechecks. An entire engine module i.s checked and given a passor fail in under four seconds. "It takes longer to position thepallet than it does to run the test," says MacVicar.

The most important feature of this system is the abiliry tocreate and define multiple "region of interest" (ROI) windowseasily through a user-friendly graphical user interface, with theassistance of a drag and drop mollse.

'Within minutes, all of the

required features are immediately captured and entered intothe system, and ready to run for production. It doesn't reqr-rireusers to have programming skills or knowledge on image pro-cessing to configr-rre the system.'Without stopping production,ROIs can be added, moved and adjusted on a retrain page. Thechange can be made within seconds without any programmingtool, laptop or external PC, but on a user-friendly \feb p ge-like screen.

During operation, the cameras are instantly triggered by aPLC signal when an engine arrives at the inspection station.Among thre 32 cameras, one camera reads the CSN barcode andchecks its correctness according to a sequence order. Then, allcameras perform their inspection tasks independently, accord-ing to the stored procedures tellinp; them what to inspect andcriteria being as a good part or bad part. The screen shows

AUTRANS' NEW VISIONSYSTEM ARCHIVES ALL THEDATA AGAINST A REFERENCENUMBER THAT MATCHES THEVEHICLE, GIVING THECOMPI\NY A HIGH LEVELOF PART TRACEABILITY.

the locations where those teaching points have been fulfilledor rejected. Scores and returning status are also displayed toreflect each irlspection tool's confidence level with respect torequired criteria.

The system provides a rich album holding all of the pass andfail images under a hierarchy of tree views. All inspection resultsare attributed and anached to the old history for recording.

Quality certification at Autrans is now objective. "somethingis either right or wrong, within the parameters we've set," saysMacVicar. "YoLl've taken away the subjectiviry of someone say-ing, 'That looks OK to 111s'- that's gone."

He says they don't have to worry about things almost beingin the right spot. "If they're not, we're alerted and the problemcan be rectified."

So faE the system hasn't found any maj<>r quality issues."Overwhelmingly, most of the faih-rre.s we have ale hosesblocking the camera's view of a pafticr-rlar inspection point,"says MacVicar. "It helps us to learn how to be consistent inways that haven't been required in the past."

But the system has other benefits, according to MacVicar."[The systemJ also has a feature that allows us to check our

suppliers parts so that if there's a problem, we can go throughthe visual archive and see everything we've already built andfind the modules that have the defective part(s).

"The last thing you want to do is ship sub-standard qualiry toyour cllstomer or buy a sub-standard quality product."

Part proliferation also gained some attention. In some in-stances there are four different variations of one part and ev-ery one is interchangeahrle. The system allows Autrans to putinto place error proofing to prevent the wrong part from be-ing installed.

For Autrans and MacVicar, it's all about defining the cost ofquality.

"The better quality product, the better efficiency the benercost. it's all of benefit to us." ?..i'i-

Jobn Tenpenny is the editor of Advanced Manufacturinp;. Youcan reach bim at: jtenpenny@clbmed.ia.ca.

www,advancedmanufacturing.com Soptembor 2OO7 19