Vision system for small parts 2

Remember that FOV/desired resolution dictates the required pixel res. of any vision system. If you want to simultaneously measure dimensions all over the part, the Field of view (FOV) is going to be a part size. My question to you is 'what is your desired FOV and what resolution do you desire'. A good vision engineer will tell you that most vision systems available to a great job when they are properly applied as most systems will do a poor job when improperly applied. Tell us exactly what you want to measure and we can give you some help. In vision systems, they will tell you Lighting, Lighting, Lightng, meaning that systems generally succeed or fail based on lighting or the misuse or optical lensing equipment. In general, Cognex Insight 1000, 2000 systems do well when used correctly. Dvt works well also. I like to keep my desired pixel size 1/1000 of my desired FOV. Most systems allow good subpixel measurements to .4-.1 subpixel distances. A 640 X 480 system therefore should be able to measure to a 1000th FOV and be @ .4-.6 pixel. Also remember that the color of your imaging lighting will limit your minimal resolution achievable. In general, the limits are 2.4 microns 96 microinches using Red light.

My quick and dirty recommendation is keep your measurements to 1/1000 of full view to avoid problems and very High-Tech tricks out of the equation. IPD has a new appliance based metrology system called igauge that looks very easy and nice to use. I saw in at a vision show in Nov. in San Jose and I have read some really good things about it. I will use most any of the existing brands out there; but, remember that some optical physics governs these systems and you have to play by the rules. Most of the $3000-$5000 systems will do what you want if you stay inside a few limits. I hope this helps.

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Most of my customers use Cognex for Vision. We have also done some work with Matrox/Sony. Newton is another you can look at.

We have used vision for applications such as fiber alignment where the fiber in 9 microns.

Start w/ Cognex. Cameron Anderson - Sales & Applications Engineer
Aerotech, Inc. -
"Dedicated to the Science of Motion"

The above posts are correct. Cognex is the world leader for Machine Vision and is probably the best place to start. Their link is:


I have used DVT as well and they are pretty good at binary images (where the image is almost completely black and white with no shades of gray in between). Their address is:


Usually the Cognex is faster and more robust and the most capable. The nice thing about Cognex is they will provide an extensive evaluation of your application for no charge and will tell you not only if the application is possible, but what the barriers might be. If it isn't possible, they will tell you. DVT on the other hand is sold through Distributors. Some will provide an evaluation, some won't.

There are lots of other manufacturers as well, but for small applications the above are definitely the leaders. For either one, you should plan on spending $4,000-$10,000 for a solution. There are cheaper vendors out there if you need cheaper, but generally their products reflect their lower cost.

Good Luck!

Another good place to start is - they are some type of spin-off from Imaging Tech I think

You might also check out this site. We use these high speed vision systems to detect inperfections in our can production process. Once set up they are very reliable.

Christopher AOI systems may work. At my old company, a circuit board manufacture, we would have to inspect parts 2mm by 1mm on a circuit board may be hundreds at a time on one board. Cycle time was about 1 to 2 minuets for a heavy populated board but we had a 7 year old system. The new systems are inline and a lot faster.