Problems in Nozzle Cleaning

• Quality: The nozzle condition cannot be measured numerically.

• The cleaning steps and judgment criteria are vague.

• Time: Huge workload in nozzle reassembly and cleaning operations.

• Cost: No man-hours allocated for nozzle maintenance.

Solving Problems through Automation

• Detect product appearance and dimensions. A total of four product types.

• Y-axis

• Operators place the small fixtures loaded with products in fixed positions and press the start button.

• The upper-station camera first moves to check whether each product is placed in position one by one, then confirms if the large fixture has empty slots ready.

• Gripper

• Large fixture

• After completion, the gripper moves to transplant the products from the small fixture to the large fixture. After air drying and pressure testing, the lower-station camera takes photos to detect the appearance and dimensions of the products, finally giving an OK/NG result for each product.

• Air drying

• Pressure testing

• Lower-station camera

• Small fixture ①

• Small fixture 2

• Small fixture 3

• Camera

• Product

• Lens

• Light source

• Light source

• Lens

• Product

• Camera

• Upper station

• Lower station

• X-axis

• Z-axis

• Upper-station camera

1. This project uses 3 × 5-megapixel cameras for detection, with a camera field of view of approximately 29×22 and a single-pixel precision of about 0.01mm, enabling high-precision measurement. It is equipped with a set of special visual measurement software.

2. This detection scheme uses two stations (divided into upper and lower stations):

Detectable Items (marked as follows):

Front Side | Back Side

1. Character position, whitening, blackening detection. | 3. Outer ring radius

2. Distance | 4. Radius
   | 5. Radius
   | 6. Presence of central hole
   | 7. Radius

Front Side | Back Side

1. Radius | 1. Radius

2. Radius | 2. Radius

3. Length and width | 3. Radius

4. Radius | 4. Radius

5. Radius | 5. Radius

6. Radius | 7. Radius

Front Side | Front Side

1. Radius | 3. Character position, whitening, blackening detection

2. Radius | 4. Cylindrical radius

3. Radius | 6. Radius
   | 8. ...

Back Side | Front Side
7. Radius | 1. Radius
8. Width | 2. Radius
9. Radius | 5. Radius
10. Appearance: Deep scratches and cuts | 6. Radius
| 8. ...

Test Results of Customer's Defective Samples

| Back Side | Front Side
| Severe deformation | Nozzle damage
| Detectable | Detectable
| Nozzle missing | Slight deformation
| Detectable | Undetectable