One of the fun parts of Industry 4.0 is when hidden benefits are discovered by bringing technology together and that’s exactly what we’ve done here. This digital quality solution features a camera, visual inspection software, IIoT gateway software, cloud analytics and a cloud-based process management solution.
By integrating these tools we’ve created a solution that automatically identifies quality issues on your product.
Here’s How it Works:
- The user takes a picture of the manufactured product using an Advantech Smart Camera.
- The picture is transferred to the cloud via an IIoT gateway (ATS Bus).
- The picture is analyzed automatically for visual quality issues such as scratches or missing parts.
- The results, including the type/location of defects, are sent back to ATS Inspect (running on an Advantech IPC) via ATS Bus.
- ATS Inspect records the defects and all their details against the unit.
The whole procedure is guided through by process management software – SODA Play. What’s more, the more you use it, the better the analysis becomes. The Artificial Intelligence within the cloud analytics is constantly learning so that it can identify quality issues with ever higher accuracy.
The real benefits of this digital quality solution come from the reporting and analysis it provides, with reports such as heat map, pareto and cost analysis being generated and archived as it goes. It can even raise an alert, via an overhead display or email, when quality drops below preset limits. The in-depth analysis and real-time alarms allow you to react fast, armed with all requisite knowledge, when issues arise.
