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Exploring Industrial Cameras: A Guide for Engineers in Life Sciences, Semiconductors, and Automotive Fields 

In the bustling landscape of industrial camera offerings, discerning the parameters that genuinely define a camera’s worth can be a daunting task. This article serves as a compass, steering you through six fundamental properties that should illuminate your path when selecting an industrial camera. While the first three aspects play a pivotal role in aligning with your camera needs, the latter three hold significance if your requirements lean towards unique settings, external conditions, or challenging light environments.

    1. Resolution: unveiling the finer details. Imagine your camera as a painter’s canvas and resolution as the number of dots that bring your masterpiece to life. In simple terms, resolution is the number of pixels forming the image, determining its level of detail. For instance, a camera labeled 4096 x 3008 pixels amounts to a pixel symphony of around 12.3 million, or 12.3 megapixels. Yet don’t be swayed solely by megapixels. Focus on the pixel count on both the horizontal (X) and vertical (Y) axes. A 12-megapixel camera might sport configurations like 4000 x 3000 pixels, 5000 x 2400 pixels, or 3464 x 3464 pixels, each tailor-made for your observation intent and image format.
    1. Frame rate: capturing motion in real-time. The frame rate, akin to a movie’s frame sequence, dictates how swiftly your camera captures moving scenes. With figures like 46.5/74.0/135 denoting your camera’s capabilities, it reveals the number of images taken in different modes. Burst mode captures a rapid series of images, while Max. streaming ensures a consistent flow despite interface limitations. The elegance of Binning also plays a role, making it an adept solution for scenarios craving clarity in dim light and minimal noise.
    1. Connectivity: bridging the camera to your system. The camera’s connectivity interfaces, such as USB3 and GigE, shape its rapport within your system.

USB3 Interface: Like a speedy expressway for data, USB3 suits real-time applications like quality control and automation. Its straightforward nature adapts to diverse setups.

GigE Interface: This Ethernet-infused interface excels in robust, long-distance connections. Tailored for tasks like remote monitoring and industrial inspection, it basks in Ethernet’s reliability. Choosing the best fit: USB3 facilitates swift, direct communication, while GigE emerges triumphant in extended cable spans and networking. Your choice hinges on data velocity, distance, and infrastructure compatibility.

    1. Dynamic range: capturing radiance and shadow. Imagine your camera as an artist of light, skillfully capturing both dazzling radiance and somber shadows. Dynamic range defines this ability, representing the breadth of brightness levels the camera can encapsulate. Think of it as a harmony between light and dark. Technical folks may refer to it as the Ratio of Signal to Noise. It’s influenced by the camera’s design and the sensor’s performance. HDR mode is also worth noting, enhancing contrast by dividing the integration time into phases, each independently calibrated for optimal results.
    1. Sensitivity: shining in low-light environments. Your camera’s sensitivity determines its prowess in low-light scenarios. This sensitivity is akin to the ability to see in dimly lit spaces. Some cameras excel at this, providing a lifeline in settings with scarce illumination. Sensitivity’s secret lies in the art of collecting light while taming noise, finding the sweet spot between clear images and environmental challenges.
    1. Noise: orchestrating image purity. In the world of imagery, noise is akin to static in an audio recording—distracting and intrusive. Noise takes multiple forms and can mar image quality:

Read noise: This error appears when converting light to electrical signals. Faster speeds can amplify read noise, affecting image quality. Here, sensor design quality is a decisive factor.

Dark current noise: Under light exposure, sensors can warm up, introducing unwanted thermal electrons. Cooling methods can mitigate this thermal interference.

Patterns/artifacts: Sometimes, images bear unexpected patterns or shapes due to sensor design inconsistencies. Such artifacts disrupt accuracy, especially in low-light conditions. By understanding and adeptly managing these noise sources, CMOS industrial cameras have the potential to deliver superior image quality across diverse applications.

In the realm of industrial cameras, unraveling the threads of resolution, frame rate, connectivity, dynamic range, sensitivity, and noise paints a vivid portrait of informed decision-making. For engineers in life sciences, semiconductors, and automotive domains, this guide stands as a beacon, ushering them toward optimal camera choices that harmonize with their unique demands and aspirations.

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Waterways: the Many Routes of Water Detection

 

Water is everywhere, in most things living and not, and the amount of this precious resource is always important. The simplest form of monitoring water is if it is there or not. In your body, you feel the effects of dehydration, in your car the motor overheats, and on your lawn, you see the dryness of the grass. What about your specialty machine or your assembly process? Water and other liquids are inherently clear so how do you see them, especially small amounts of it possibly stored in a tank or moving fast? Well, there are several correct answers to that question. Let’s dive into this slippery topic together, pun intended.

While mechanical float and flow switches have been around the longest, capacitive, photoelectric, and ultrasonic sensors are the most modern forms of electronic water detection. These three sensing technologies all have their strong points. Let’s cover a few comparisons that might help you find your path to the best solution for your application.

Capacitive sensors

Capacitive sensors are designed to detect nonferrous materials, but really anything that can break the capacitive field the sensor creates, including water, can do this. This technology allows for adjustment to the threshold of what it takes to break this field. These sensors are a great solution for through tank level detection and direct-contact sensing.

Ultrasonic sensors

Want to view your level from above? Ultrasonic sensors give you that view. They use sound to bounce off the media and return to the sensor, calculating the time it takes to measure distance. Their strong point is that they can overcome foam and can bounce off the water where light struggles when there is a large distance from the target to the receiver. Using the liquid from above, ultrasonics can monitor large tanks without contact.

Photoelectric sensors

Use photoelectric sensors when you’re looking at a solution for small scale. Now, this might require a site tube if you are monitoring the level on a large tank, however, if you want to detect small amounts of water or even bubbles within that water, photoelectric sensors are ideal. Using optical head remote photoelectric sensors tied to an amplifier, the detail and speed are unmatched. Photoelectric sensors are also great at detecting liquid levels on transparent bottles. In these applications with short distances, you need speed. Photoelectric sensors are as fast as light.

So, have you made up your mind yet? No matter which technology you choose, you will have a sensor that gives you accurate detail and digital outputs and is easy on the budget. Capacitive, ultrasonic, and photoelectric sensors provide all this and they grow with your application with adjustability.

Liquids are everywhere and not going away in manufacturing. They will continue to be an important resource for manufacturing.  Cherish them and ensure you account for every drop.

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Tackling the Most Demanding Applications With Precision Sensors

Standard industrial sensors can solve a lot of automation challenges. Photoelectric, capacitive, and inductive technologies detect presence, distances, shapes, colors, thicknesses, and more. To satisfy these general applications, there are a few reputable manufacturers in the market that design and produce such products. In many instances, it is possible to interchange them from manufacturer to manufacturer, due to similar mounting patterns, technical specifications, connectors, and even common pin assignments.

But some applications require more precision – where standard sensors will not do.  Some examples include:

    • The target may be too small or difficult material to detect
    • The target may move very slowly, or very quickly
    • The target may have a minimal displacement, as in valve feedback
    • The sensor must have low mass, for high-acceleration applications
    • The sensor location has severe space constraints or material constraints

Applications that must detect particles that can’t be seen with the naked eye, or something as small as sensing the thin edge of a silicon wafer or the edge of a clear glass microscope slide, require sensors with exceptional precision.

Many precision sensing applications require a custom-designed sensor to meet the customer’s expectations. These expectations typically involve a quality sensor with robust attributes, likely coupled with difficult design parameters, such as high switch-point repeatability, exceptional temperature stability, or exotic materials.

What constitutes a precision sensing application? Let’s take a look.

Approximately 70% of all medical decisions are based on lab results. Our doctors are making decisions about our health based on these test outcomes. Therefore, accurate, trustworthy results, performed quickly, are priorities. Many tests rely on pipetting, the aspirating and dispensing of fluids – sometimes at a microscale level – from one place to another. Using a manual pipette is a time-consuming, labor-intensive process. Automating this procedure reduces contamination and eliminates human errors.

To satisfy the requirements of an application such as this requires a custom-manufactured LED light source, with a wavelength chosen to best interact with the fluids, and an extremely small, concentrated light emission that approaches laser-like properties (yet without the expense and power requirements of the laser). This light source verifies pipette presence and dispensing levels, with a quality check of the fluids dispensed down to the nanoliter scale.

So, the next time you face an application challenge that cannot be tackled with a standard sensor, consider a higher precision sensor and rest assured you will get the reliability you demand.

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On the Level: Selecting the Right Sensor for Level Detection

We’ve probably all experienced having the “pot boil over” or “run dry” at one time or another. The same is frequently true on a much larger scale with many industrial processes. These large events can prove costly whether running dry or overflowing, resulting in lost product, lost production time, damage to the tank, or even operator injury. And then there is the cleanup!

The fact is, many procedures require the operator to monitor the bin or tank level – especially on older equipment. This human factor is prone to fail due to inattention, distractions, and lack of proper training. With today’s employee turnover and the brain drain of retirements, we need to help the operators out.

Multiple solutions exist that can provide operators with sufficient warning of the tank and bin levels being either too low or too high. This article provides a framework and checklist to guide the selection of the best technology for a specific application.

What type of monitoring is necessary?

First, consider whether the application requires or would benefit from continuous monitoring, or is point-level monitoring all that is needed?

    • Point-level monitoring is the simplest. It is essentially sensing whether the product is present at specific detection point(s) in the tank or bin. If the goal is to avoid running dry or overflowing, monitoring the bin or tank point level may be all that is required. Point-level sensors typically are best if the product levels can be detected through the wall or inside the tank or bin itself. A number of sensors can prevent false readings with products that are viscous, leaving residue on the sensor, and even ignore foam.
    • Continuous-level monitoring detects levels along a range – from full to empty. This is required when the exact level of the product must be known, such as for batch mixing.

Checklist for sensor selection

The checklist below can help guide you to what should be the appropriate technologies to consider for your particular application. Frequently, more than one type of technology may work, given the media (or product) you’re detecting, so it may make sense to test more than one.

Checklist for sensor selection

Ultimately, the sensor(s) you select must reliably sense/detect the presence of the subject product (or media). Which solution is least costly is frequently a big consideration, but remember there can be a hefty cost associated with a sensor that gives a false reading to the operator or control system.

Choosing sensors for washdown or clean-in-place environments

For products that will be consumed or entered into the human body, further selection considerations may include sensors that must survive in washdown or clean-in-place environments without contaminating the product.

The encouraging news is that sensors exist for most applications to detect product levels reliably. The finesse is in selecting the best for a given application when multiple technologies can do the job.

Again, there may be some trial and error at play but this checklist should at least narrow the field and pointed you to the better solution/technology.

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Using Guided Format Change to Improve Changeover and Productivity

Long before Covid, we were seeing an increase in the number of packaging SKUs. In 2019, Packaging Digest reported an estimated 42% increase in SKUs in the food and beverage industry.

Since Covid, there has been a further explosion of new packaging sizes, especially in the food and beverage marketplace. Food manufacturers have gotten very creative. Instead of raising prices due to the higher costs of goods, for example, they can reduce the size of product packages while keeping the consumer prices the same.

Many of today’s production machines are not equipped to changeover as quickly and as accurately to meet the demand of the marketplace. Manufacturers now face the challenge of “semi-automating” their existing machines, as opposed to procuring new machines or adding expensive motors to existing machines. One solution is to digitalize change points on existing machines.

Companies are looking to reduce the amount of time and the mistakes that occur when doing product changeovers. Allowing for operator guidance and position measurement can reduce your time and enhance your accuracy of those changeover events. Measurements are then tied to the recipe and the operator becomes the prime mover.

Guided Format Change

There are lots of technologies out there for helping with guided format change, such as automated position measurement, machine position, distance measurement, linear measurement, and digitalized rotary encoders.


As you are likely quite aware, there are often scales, marks, etc., written onto machines that don’t provide the greatest degree of accuracy. Introducing digitalized position and distance sensing can help you reduce time and limit errors during changeovers.

Change Part Identification

The other side of changeover is change part identification. Quite often during this process parts on the machine must be exchanged. Using the wrong change part can result in mistakes, waste, and delays, and can even damage existing machines.

Technologies, such as RFID, can help ensure the correct change part is chosen and added to the machine. During a recipe change, the operator can then validate that all the correct parts are installed before the startup of the next product run.

Guided format change is a cost-effective way to reduce changeover time and increase productivity either by retrofitting your existing machines or even new machines.

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Looking Into & Through Transparent Material With Photoelectric Sensors

Advance automated manufacturing relies on sensor equipment to ensure each step of the process is done correctly, reliably, and effectively. For many standard applications, inductive, capacitive, or basic photoelectric sensors can do a fine job of monitoring and maintaining the automated manufacturing process. However, when transparent materials are the target, you need a different type of sensor, and maybe even need to think differently about how you will use it.

What are transparent materials?

When I think of transparent materials, water, glass, plexiglass, polymers, soaps, cooling agents, and packaging all come to mind. Because transparent material absorbs very little of the emitted red LED light, standard photoelectric sensors struggle on this type of application. If light can make its way back to the receiver, how can you tell if the beam was broken or not? By measuring the amount of light returned, instead of just if it is there or not, we can detect a transparent material and learn how transparent it is.

Imagine being able to determine proper mixes or thicknesses of liquid based on a transparency scale associated to a value of returned light. Another application that I believe a transparent material photoelectric senor would be ideal for is the thickness of a clear bottle. Imagine the wall thickness being crucial to the integrity of the bottle. Again, we would measure the amount of light allowed back to the receiver instead of an expensive measurement laser or even worse, a time-draining manual caliper.

Transparent material sensor vs. standard photoelectric sensor

So how does a transparent material sensor differ from a standard photoelectric sensor? Usually, the type of light is key. UV light is absorbed much greater than other wavelengths, like red or blue LEDs you find in standard photoelectric sensors. To add another level, you polarize that UV light to better control the light back into the receiver. Polarized UV light with a polarized reflector is the best combination. This can be done on a large or micro scale based on the sensor head size and build.

Uses for transparent material sensor include packaging trays, level tubes, medical tests, adhesive extrusion, and bottle fill levels, just to name a few. Transparent materials are everywhere, and the technology has matured. Make sure you are looking into specialized sensor technologies and working through best set-up practices to ensure reliable detection of transparent materials.

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The 5 Most Common Types of Fixed Industrial Robots

The International Federation of Robotics (IFR) defines five types of fixed industrial robots: Cartesian/Gantry, SCARA, Articulated, Parallel/Delta and Cylindrical (mobile robots are not included in the “fixed” robot category). These types are generally classified by their mechanical structure, which dictates the ways they can move.

Based on the current market situation and trends, we have modified this list by removing Cylindrical robots and adding Power & Force Limited Collaborative robots. Cylindrical robots have a small, declining share of the market and some industry analysts predict that they will be completely replaced by SCARA robots, which can cover similar applications at higher speed and performance. On the other hand, use of collaborative robots has grown rapidly since their first commercial sale by Universal Robots in 2008. This is why collaborative robots are on our list and cylindrical/spherical robots are not.

Therefore, our list of the top five industrial robot types includes:

    • Articulated
    • Cartesian/Gantry
    • Parallel/Delta
    • SCARA
    • Power & Force Limited Collaborative robots

These five common types of robots have emerged to address different applications, though there is now some overlap in the applications they serve. And range of industries where they are used is now very wide. The IFR’s 2021 report ranks electronics/electrical, automotive, metal & machinery, plastic and chemical products and food as the industries most commonly using fixed industrial robots. And the top applications identified in the report are material/parts handling and machine loading/unloading, welding, assembling, cleanrooms, dispensing/painting and processing/machining.

Articulated robots

Articulated robots most closely resemble a human arm and have multiple rotary joints–the most common versions have six axes. These can be large, powerful robots, capable of moving heavy loads precisely at moderate speeds. Smaller versions are available for precise movement of lighter loads. These robots have the largest market share (≈60%) and are growing between 5–10% per year.

Articulated robots are used across many industries and applications. Automotive has the biggest user base, but they are also used in other industries such as packaging, metalworking, plastics and electronics. Applications include material & parts handling (including machine loading & unloading, picking & placing and palletizing), assembling (ranging from small to large parts), welding, painting, and processing (machining, grinding, polishing).

SCARA robots

A SCARA robot is a “Selective Compliance Assembly Robot Arm,” also known as a “Selective Compliance Articulated Robot Arm.” They are compliant in the X-Y direction but rigid in the Z direction. These robots are fairly common, with around 15% market share and a 5-10% per year growth rate.

SCARA robots are most often applied in the Life Sciences, Semiconductor and Electronics industries. They are used in applications requiring high speed and high accuracy such as assembling, handling or picking & placing of lightweight parts, but also in 3D printing and dispensing.

Cartesian/Gantry robots

Cartesian robots, also known as gantry or linear robots, move along multiple linear axes. Since these axes are very rigid, they can precisely move heavy payloads, though this also means they require a lot of space. They have about 15% market share and a 5-10% per year growth rate.

Cartesian robots are often used in handling, loading/unloading, sorting & storing and picking & placing applications, but also in welding, assembling and machining. Industries using these robots include automotive, packaging, food & beverage, aerospace, heavy engineering and semiconductor.

Delta/Parallel robots

Delta robots (also known as parallel robots) are lightweight, high-speed robots, usually for fast handling of small and lightweight products or parts. They have a unique configuration with three or four lightweight arms arranged in parallelograms. These robots have 5% market share and a 3–5% growth rate.

They are often used in food or small part handling and/or packaging. Typical applications are assembling, picking & placing and packaging. Industries include food & beverage, cosmetics, packaging, electronics/ semiconductor, consumer goods, pharmaceutical and medical.

Power & Force Limiting Collaborative robots

We add the term “Power & Force Limiting” to our Collaborative robot category because the standards actually define four collaborative robot application modes, and we want to focus on this, the most well-known mode. Click here to read a blog on the different collaborative modes. Power & Force Limiting robots include models from Universal Robots, the FANUC CR green robots and the YuMi from ABB. Collaborative robots have become popular due to their ease of use, flexibility and “built-in” safety and ability to be used in close proximity to humans. They are most often an articulated robot with special features to limit power and force exerted by the axes to allow close, safe operation near humans or other machines. Larger, faster and stronger robots can also be used in collaborative applications with the addition of safety sensors and special programming.

Power & Force Limiting Collaborative robots have about 5% market share and sales are growing rapidly at 20%+ per year. They are a big success with small and mid-size enterprises, but also with more traditional robot users in a very broad range of industries including automotive and electronics. Typical applications include machine loading/unloading, assembling, handling, dispensing, picking & placing, palletizing, and welding.

Summary­

The robot market is one of the most rapidly growing segments of the industrial automation industry. The need for more automation and robots is driven by factors such as supply chain issues, changing workforce, cost pressures, digitalization and mass customization (highly flexible manufacturing). A broad range of robot types, capabilities and price points have emerged to address these factors and satisfy the needs of applications and industries ranging from automotive to food & beverage to life sciences.

Note: Market share and growth rate estimates in this blog are based on public data published by the International Federation of Robotics, Loup Ventures, NIST and Interact Analysis.

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Protecting photoelectric and capacitive sensors

Supply chain and labor shortages are putting extra pressure on automation solutions to keep manufacturing lines running. Even though sensors are designed to work in harsh environments, one good knock can put a sensor out of alignment or even out of condition. Keep reading for tips on ways to protect photoelectric and capacitive sensors.

Mounting solutions for photoelectric sensors

Photoelectric sensors are sensitive to environmental factors that can cloud their view, like dust, debris, and splashing liquids, or damage them with physical impact. One of the best things to do from the beginning is to protect them by mounting them in locations that keep them out of harm’s way. Adjustable mounting solutions make it easier to set up sensors a little further away from the action. Mounts that can be adjusted on three axes like ball joints or rod-and-mount combinations should lock firmly into position so that vibration or weight will not cause sensors to move out of alignment. And mounting materials like stainless steel or plastic can be chosen to meet factors like temperature, accessibility, susceptibility to impact, and contact with other materials.

When using retroreflective sensors, reflectors and reflective foils need similar attention. Consider whether the application involves heat or chemicals that might contact reflectors. Reflectors come in versions, especially for use with red, white, infrared, and laser lights, or especially for polarized or non-polarized light. And there are mounting solutions for reflectors as well.

Considering the material and design of capacitive sensors

Capacitive sensors must also be protected based on their working environment, the material they detect, and where they are installed. Particularly, is the sensor in contact with the material it is sensing or not?

If there is contact, pay special attention to the sensor’s material and design. Foods, beverages, chemicals, viscous substances, powders, or bulk materials can degrade a sensor constructed of the wrong material. And to switch perspectives, a sensor can affect the quality of the material it contacts, like changing the taste of a food product. If resistance to chemicals is needed, housings made of stainless steel, PTFE, and PEEK are available.

While the sensor’s material is important to its functionality, the physical design of the sensor is also important. A working environment can involve washdown processes or hygienic requirements. If that is the case, the sensor’s design should allow water and cleaning agents to easily run off, while hygienic requirements demand that the sensor not have gaps or crevices where material may accumulate and harbor bacteria. Consider capacitive sensors that hold FDA, Ecolab, and CIP certifications to work safely in these conditions.

Non-contact capacitive sensors can have their own special set of requirements. They can detect material through the walls of a tank, depending on the tank wall’s material type and thickness. Plastic walls and non-metallic packaging present a smaller challenge. Different housing styles – flat cylindrical, discs, and block styles – have different sensing capabilities.

Newer capacitive technology is designed as an adhesive tape to measure the material inside a tank or vessel continuously. Available with stainless steel, plastic, or PTFF housing, it works particularly well when there is little space available to detect through a plastic or glass wall of 8mm or less. When installing the tape, the user can cut it with scissors to adjust the length.

Whatever the setting, environmental factors and installation factors can affect the functionality of photoelectric and capacitive sensors, sometimes bringing them to an untimely end. Details like mounting systems and sensor materials may not be the first requirements you look for, but they are important features that can extend the life of your sensors.

 

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Detecting Liquid Media and Bubbles Using Optical Sensors

In my line of work in Life Sciences, we often deal with liquid media and bubble detection evaluation through a vessel or a tube. This can be done by using the absorption principle or the refraction principle with through-beam-configured optical sensors. These are commonly embedded in medical devices or lab instruments.

This configuration provides strong benefits:

    • Precise sensing
    • Ability to evaluate liquid media
    • Detect multiple events
    • High reliability

How does it work?

The refraction principle is based on the media’s refraction index. It uses an emitted light source (Tx) that is angled to limit the light falling on the receiver (Rx, Figure 1). When the light passes through a liquid, refraction causes the light to focus on the receiver as a beam (known as a “beam-make” configuration). All liquids and common vessel materials (silicon, plastic, glass, etc.) have a known refraction index. These sensors will detect those refraction differences and output a signal.

The absorption principle is preferred when a media’s absorption index is high. First, a beam is established through a vessel or tube (Figure 2). Light sources in the 1500nm range work best for aqueous-based media such as water. As a high absorption index liquid enters the tube, it will block the light (known as a beam-break configuration). The sensor detects this loss of light.

Discrete on-off signals are easily used by a control system. However, by using the actual light value information (commonly analog), more data can be extracted. This is becoming more popular now and can be done with either sensing principle. By using this light-value information, you can differentiate between types of media, measure concentrations, identify multiple objects (e.g., filter in an IV and the media) and much more.

There is a lot to know about through-beam sensors, so please leave a comment below if you have questions on how you can benefit from this technology.

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Add Automation to Gain Safety and Control in Manufacturing

Industry automation not only has a positive effect on the improvement of production processes, it also significantly improves employee safety. New technologies can minimize the need for employees to work in dangerous situations by replacing them all together or by working cooperatively alongside them.

Overcoming fears of automation
Many workers fear technological progress due to the generally accepted view that robots will replace people in their workplaces. But their fears are conjecture. According to a study published in 2017 by scientists at the Universities of Oxford and Yale, AI experts predict a 50% chance of AI outperforming humans at all tasks within 45 years. But, instead of replacing all workers, there is a stronger chance AI will eliminate dangerous manual labor and evolve other roles. Following are a few examples.

    • Automation in palletizing systems
      Before automation-based solutions entered factories, laborers had to do most work by hand. A work system based on the strength of the human body, however, does not bring good results. Workers tire quickly, causing a decrease in their productivity. And with time, health problems related to regularly carrying heavy daily loads also begin to appear. Until recently, employees of the palletizing departments struggled with these problems. But today, robots are carrying out the work of moving, stacking, and transporting products on pallets.
    • Automation forging processes
      Also, until recently, forging processes in the metallurgical industry were performed with the help of human workers. There are still factories today in which blacksmiths are responsible for putting the hot metal element under the hammer to form the final shape of the product. Such a device hits with a force of several dozen tons, several times a minute. Being at the hammer is therefore extremely dangerous and may cause permanent damage to the worker’s health. Elevated temperatures in the workplace can also have negative effects on the body.

      At       most businesses, forging processes are now fully automated. Robots specially prepared for such work feed the elements to the automatic hammer with their grippers. And sensory solutions help make the job safer by detecting the presence of people or undesirable elements within the working machine. The quality control of manufactured products is also extremely important and more easily controlled with an automated system.
    • Automation in welding processes
      Welding processes are another dangerous activity in which automation is starting to play a key role. During welding work, toxic fumes are released from the gas lagging, which the welder regularly inhales. This can result in serious poisoning or chronic respiratory diseases. Welding also produces sparks which can lead to severe burns and worker blindness.

      Again, automation makes the process safer. High-class welding machines exist on the market that can work continuously, under human control. With such solutions, it is necessary to use appropriate protection systems to protect employees against possible contact with machines during work. Automation in this situation eliminates a dangerous role, and creates a new, safer, and, some would say, better work role.

Skillful design of automation systems
While factory automation eliminates some threats to workers, others often arise, creating the need for strict design plans prepared by specialists in this field. It is necessary to prepare the automation system in such a way that it not only ensures safety, it does so without reducing productivity or creating downtime which can cause the employee to bypass security systems. The systems blocking the working space of the machine should not interfere with the worker and the worker should not interfere with the system. Where possible, instead of a mechanical lock, an optical curtain at the feeding point should be used to stop the machine’s operation if a foreign object breaks the curtain’s beam of the light. Mechanical locks blocking access to the working space should be in places where it is not necessary to open the door frequently.

Successful human-machine collaboration
When designing automation systems in production companies, it is also necessary to remember that often a human is working alongside the robot. In palletizing systems, for example, a person is responsible for preparing the place for packing and cleaning the working area. For the work to go smoothly, it may be worth creating two positions next to each other. Mechanisms on the market today allow you to control the work of robots at a given position, assigning them to the workspace. Special security scanners prevent the robots from moving to positions where someone is working.