Automated surface inspection of cold-formed micro-parts

Quality inspection within mass production of micro-parts is a big challenge due to manufacturing dimension and the need of suitable measurement and automated analysis systems. A main problem during micro manufacturing processes is the occurrence of surface imperfections. Automated detection of imperfections is often realised by analysing image data of work piece surfaces. A novel inline surface inspection technique is introduced based on texture analysis and statistical image processing methods. Image acquisition is realised by means of confocal laser microscopy. Evaluation on a synthetic dataset and on a real micro cold forming process confirms excellent defect detection results. (C) 2012 CIRP.