Focus on vision systems

Outdoor-certified safety laser scanner

Safety laser scanners enable humans and machines to work safely alongside one another in industrial environments. OutdoorScan3 is a safety laser scanner certified to IEC 62998 for use in outdoor applications. The scanner allows automated guided vehicle (AGV) systems to navigate safely through outdoor industrial environments. Because of its outdoor-safe HDDM scanning technology, the device works in all weather-sun, rain, snow, or fog.

The laser scanner can work without errors when exposed to sunlight with an illumination intensity of up to 40,000 lux. In addition, the intelligent software algorithm detects rain and snow, filtering out these environmental influences. For example, rain up to a precipitation intensity of 10 mm/h can be filtered out. Even in fog with a meteorological visual range of up to 50 m, the OutdoorScan3 detects all obstacles, due to its special fog function.
SICK Inc.
www.sick.com/us

Machine vision controller

The IPS960-511-PoE is an integrated vision controller optimized for machine vision applications. With a multicore CPU, IP40-rated design, camera communication interfaces, and real-time, vision-specific I/O with microsecond-scale and LED lighting control, this machine vision controller addresses needs across various machine vision platforms and automatic inspection cases.

The controller is powered by the LGA1151 socket with seventh- and sixth-generation Intel Core (Kaby Lake/Skylake) and Celeron processors (up to 65W) with the Intel H110 chipset. The vision system comes with dual DDR4-2133/2400 unbuffered SO-DIMM sockets for up to 32 GB of system memory. It also supports camera interfaces for connecting industrial cameras, including four IEEE 802.3at PoE LAN ports and four USB 3.0 ports.

The unit's vision I/O integrates a range of isolated I/O interfaces and real-time controls essential to machine vision applications, including trigger input, an LED lighting controller, camera trigger, and an encoder input for conveyor tracking. The IPS960-511-PoE also supports light-dimming control to identify object characteristics for different inspections. Two swappable 2.5-in HDDs are available for extensive storage needs.

To ensure performance in harsh environments, the platform system supports an operating temperature range of -10°C to +55°C. Its setup and design allow installation in space-constrained environments. It comes with front-accessible I/O connectors, including two Gigabit LAN ports, four PoE ports, four USB 3.0 ports, one real-time vision I/O, one VGA, one HDMI, one three-pin terminal block, and one audio (mic-in/line-out). The IPS960-511-PoE comes with one I/O module slot with a choice of four different types of I/O modules-a four-port RS-232/422/485 module (AX93511); a four-port isolated RS-232/422/485 module (AX93516); a one-port GbE Ethernet, two-port USB 3.0, and two-port RS-232/422/485 module (AX93519); or a two-port isolated RS-232/422/485 and eight-in/eight-out DIO module (AX93512)
Axiomtek
www.axiomtek.com

Prism line scan camera for sorting, inspection

The second 10-GigE prism line scan camera in the Sweep+ series, the SW-4000Q-10GE has four prism-mounted CMOS sensors and a 10-GigE interface that also supports backward compatibility to 5 Gbps, 2.5 Gbps, and 1 Gbps Ethernet standards. The four CMOS prisms simultaneously capture red, green, blue, and near infrared spectral wavebands for both color accuracy and multispectral analysis via the NIR channel.

Via integrated auto-negotiation technology, the camera has automatic backward compatibility to NBASE-T (5 Gbps and 2.5 Gbps) and the traditional 1000BASE-T (1-Gbps output) for companies running vision applications on these lower-speed Ethernet standards. This makes the camera suitable for the slowest to the fastest running color line scan setups, including applications in food sorting, plastic sorting, bottle/bottle cap inspection, and print/label inspection.

The camera has a maximum resolution of 4,096 pixels (4K) per channel/line, and in combination with the 10GBASE-T interface, it provides RGB + NIR output at up to 72 kHz (72,000 lines per second) over dual 10-GigE streams. The dual-stream configuration supports 8-bit or 10-bit output per channel.

The camera also has a single-stream option using the RGBa8 format where the NIR data is provided via the alpha channel. In this configuration, the camera can operate at up to 73 kHz with 8-bit-per-channel output. A third output option, capable of up to 74 kHz at full 4K resolution, includes 8-bit YUV color data on one stream combined with 8-bit or 10-bit NIR data on a second stream.

The camera supports the precision time protocol (IEEE 1588) for multicamera networked configurations and can be connected directly to rotary encoders for synchronization with conveyor belts and other motion systems.
JAI
www.jai.com