A High Speed Statistical Process Control Application of Machine Vision to Electronics Manufacturing

• Published in: Computers & industrial engineering Vol. 19; no. 1; pp. 234 - 238
• Main Authors: Chapman, Kenneth W., Johnson, W.Carroll, McLean, Thomas J.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York Elsevier Ltd 1990; Pergamon Press Inc
• Subjects: Measurement; Methods; Operations research; Personal computers; Procedures; Process controls; Quality control; Transit systems; Vision systems
• ISSN: 0360-8352; 1879-0550
• DOI: 10.1016/0360-8352(90)90112-Y

Dale Electronics is a manufacturer of chip capacitors and resistors. Two of its highest volume products are 14 lead and 16 lead surface mount device (SMD) resistor packages. The tips of the leads on each package need to be positioned very accurately relative to the other lead tips on the package. To eliminate errors associated with human visual inspection of the parts, Dale asked the Machine Vision Applications Laboratory (MVAL) at the University of Texas at El Paso to address major problems, such as insufficient speed of inspection. The MVAL reviewed the capabilities of a variety of vision computers. The Intelledex 386HR vision system proved to have the best algorithm base, program development environment, speed, and price-performance ratio. As a direct result of the selection of the appropriate vision hardware and algorithms to perform its application, Dale Electronics has shown a dramatic increase in the quality and speed of the inspections it performs on its SMDs.