Reconfiguration of quality inspection approach to the food processing industry

Chengsi Lin, Arfauz A Rahman*, Paul Maropoulos

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contribution

Abstract

On the production line, the inspection process is crucial to shorten the product's production cycle and improve productivity and quality. In the era of continuous advancement of the industrial revolution, enterprises face many difficulties and challenges in developing the world's equipment manufacturing industry, especially in terms of technology and economy. To this end, an automatic inspection system based on a charge-coupled devices (CCD) camera and laser scanner is proposed to replace the previously time-consuming and error-prone manual inspection schemes. As an important part of the production process, the inspection system has great potential for improvement. To build the system more rationally, the work first investigates the current manufacturing manual inspection process, exploring alternatives to the current manual inspection process in manufacturing. The inspection system is then designed according to the selected sandwich automated production line. CCD cameras and image processing modules are used to inspect the coverage of sandwich fillings, while the three-dimension (3D) scanner is used to measure whether the height of the fillings meets the standard. To verify the system's viability, the design used Siemens software Process Simulate to simulate a production line designed with Solidworks. By recording the time of each stage and comparing the results of the two simulations, the automatic inspection of each production cycle is reduced by about 6s compared to manual inspection. The improved production line requires only one mobile worker to inspect and modify image processing programs. A cylinder and jacking frame are also installed underneath the inspection system, which can quickly push out unqualified products. The simulation results of the production line met expectations, and the feasibility of the system will be further verified later by the construction of a virtual production environment.
Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationProceedings of the 38th International Manufacturing Conference (IMC38)
Pages207-214
Number of pages8
Publication statusPublished - 30 Aug 2022

Keywords

  • Quality
  • Inspection system
  • CCD camera
  • 3D scanner
  • manufacturing industry

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