| PRODUCT
TESTING (BUCKET SEAT) |
Product
Testing
(Bucket Seat)
A
heated bucket seat must be analyzed for
functionality and safety. |
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| DIE
CASTING (ALUMINUM) |
Die
Casting
(Aluminum)
Giant
die casting machines press a mold designed
to hold molten aluminum. |
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| LASER
WELDING (PLASTIC) |
Laser
Welding
(Plastic)
Technicians need to monitor thermal patterns
during the welding process. |
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| Case
Study: Automotive Product Testing (Bucket Seat) |
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The
Problem: Product testing (in this case, heated
car bucket seats) can be very costly and time consuming
using conventional testing methods, such as spot radiometers
or thermocouple rigs. Unfortunately, spot radiometers
offer incomplete coverage and thermocouple rigs are
cumbersome to set up. A solution which optimizes both
seat temperature coverage and testing throughput would
vastly lower the cost of detecting defective product.
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The
Solution: The AXT100 Thermal Imaging Camera
allows for rapid yet meticulous product inspection.
Effectively 981 non-contact thermocouples, the AXT100
can monitor heated bucket seats as they pass through
the field of view, providing accurate quantitative temperature
measurement. The fact that the AXT100 is vastly more
affordable than competing thermal imagers makes it a
valuable addition to any production line.
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 Setting
Alarms for PLCs with InternalWeb DV:
InternalWebDV
is a browser-based application allowing the
user to monitor any AXT100 Thermal Imaging Camera
from anywhere on the factory floor (even wirelessly).
This application features SIFTA, or Software
Interface For Thermal Alarms. With SIFTA, the
user can paint custom regions of interest
and link them to relays on an Advantech
ADAM 6060 Series I/O Module. Additionally, any
PLC that uses the Modbus protocol may inqure
alarm status through Ethernet. The
end result is humanless product inspection.
InternalWeb DV is extremely powerful.
Communicating
with Modbus:
Modbus
is a protocol which operates on a TCP/IP port.
Many PLCs today use it to communicate with peripheral
equipment. The AXT100 is equipped for a PLC
to inquire alarm status using this protocol.
PLC networks that are not yet Modbus-ready may
interface with the ADAM-6060 using its relays.
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Temperature
histogram of just the seatback. |
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Using
the AXT100 for Process Control:
The
AXT100, when coupled with ImageJ, helps
identify problems in a process. Thermal
imaging reveals information that would
otherwise have to be obtained very inconveniently.
Process analysts and engineers can use
thermal imagery to modify the automation
of their equipment, decreasing downtime
and increasing output.
About
ImageJ :
ImageJ
has powerful analysis tools. Here, a
time plot of a region of interest shows
thermal trends across the gathered slices.
3D histograms and multiple selection
tools are only a few additional features
of ImageJ. Process control engineers
can use this data while modifying the
process. Product testers can also use
ImageJ to detect and analyze thermal
subtleties in their data. |
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Line
plot over time (900 sec @ 0.5 FPS) of the temperature
of the mean of a region of interest (in this
case, the maximum). |
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