In some cases, due to process variations, a particular plastic part may posses a smudged or faint print.The role of machine vision in providing solutions to manufacturing automation has been recognized by both researchers and engineers in industry. In other cases, because of the heat in the molding process, if there is excess ink on the labeling equipment, the prints may be smeared or distorted. In most instances where manual processes are involved, the individual who operates the machinery also performs this task. In the manufacture of consumer products, quality control is of utmost importance.
In manually operated equipment, this inspection process presents a challenging task because often, after prolonged hours of work, fatigued operators will insert labels inside the molding dies in improper orientation, resulting in rejected parts. For example casting mould,mold making,plastic injection mold etc. . Under such circumstances, it is possible to have a wrongly inserted print template which would result in the rejection of the part. In the plastics manufacturing industry, vision applications have been used mainly to inspect the quality of molded parts, especially for missing features or badly formed sections. Vision systems provide means by which continuous and autonomous inspection can be achieved during production.
The application of machine vision techniques that can be applied to automatically detect incorrectly placed labels in a manually loaded injection molding process. To alleviate this inspection and operation problem, it is now possible to incorporate vision systems which will ease the inspection task for the operators, allowing them to concentrate more on the manufacturing process. Although fairly automated, the plastics molding industry still has a large component of its operations carried out manually, especially for medium- and low-volume rates of production. Machine operators occasionally miss or overlook quality issues.1"3 Machine vision has continued to play a major role in the integration of automated manufacturing, both from a quality and inspection perspective to more advanced applications such as motion control and robot guidance.
Computer vision techniques are increasingly being used as alternative methods to conventional inspection and monitoring applications, due to their simplicity and ease of set-up, relative insensitivity to ambient noise, noninvasive means of gathering information on objects without contact, marking or specimen preparations, and the potential Injection Mold Factory for online applicability. In injection molding, for instance, this means ensuring the correct orientation and quality of print on the manufactured parts and components. For instance, the placement of print template or metallic parts to be included in the finished product is still done manually
