EI-100 In-Line Automatic Inspection System

The Eutecnics Model EI-100 is a typical example of our newly developed series of cost-effective, in-line inspection systems. In the current application, a conveyor belt transports glass lenses, used in automobile lamps, to various stages of the fabrication process, then to the inspection station, and finally to a packaging station. The EI-100 inspection station can be located anywhere along the manufacturing path without impeding the production cycle.

In this example, the glass lenses, traveling at a rate of one per second, are picked up by a vacuum/pneumatic arm and placed into one of eight inspection "nests" within an indexing rotary table. During each cycle, one new lens is picked up, a previously loaded lens is inspected, while a third lens is either accepted and returned to the conveyor belt or rejected and placed on a recycling conveyor belt.

The system was designed so that it will not interfere with or impede the normal manufacturing flow. Inspection can be performed either on a sampling basis or for 100% of the parts depending on quality control requirements. The modular architecture can be readily modified to inspect parts as large as 10" x 6" or as small as 0.25" x 0.25".