With a new year comes new innovation and insights. Before we jump into new topics for 2020, let’s not forget some of the hottest topics from last year. Below are the five most popular blogs from our site in 2019.
1. How to Select the Best Lighting Techniques for Your Machine Vision Application
The key to deploying a robust machine vision application in a factory automation setting is ensuring that you create the necessary environment for a stable image. The three areas you must focus on to ensure image stability are: lighting, lensing and material handling. For this blog, I will focus on the seven main lighting techniques that are used in machine vision applications.
2. M12 Connector Coding
New automation products hit the market every day and each device requires the correct cable to operate. Even in standard cables sizes, there are a variety of connector types that correspond with different applications.
3. When to use optical filtering in a machine vision application
Industrial image processing is essentially a requirement in modern manufacturing. Vision solutions can deliver visual quality control, identification and positioning. While vision systems have gotten easier to install and use, there isn’t a one-size-fits-all solution. Knowing how and when you should use optical filtering in a machine vision application is a vital part of making sure your system delivers everything you need.
4. The Difference Between Intrinsically Safe and Explosion Proof
The difference between a product being ‘explosion proof’ and ‘intrinsically safe’ can be confusing but it is vital to select the proper one for your application. Both approvals are meant to prevent a potential electrical equipment malfunction from initiating an explosion or ignition through gases that may be present in the surrounding area. This is accomplished in both cases by keeping the potential energy level below what is necessary to start ignition process in an open atmosphere.
5. Smart choices deliver leaner processes in Packaging, Food and Beverage industry
In all industries, there is a need for more flexible and individualized production as well as increased transparency and documentable processes. Overall equipment efficiency, zero downtime and the demand for shorter production runs have created the need for smart machines and ultimately the smart factory. Now more than ever, this is important in the Packaging, Food and Beverage (PFB) industry to ensure that the products and processes are clean, safe and efficient.
We appreciate your dedication to Automation Insights in 2019 and look forward to growth and innovation in 2020!
run for that line. Automated change over allows the process to be exact every time and eliminates the risk of operator error due to more accurate positioning.
Traceability using RFID can be a very important part of the smart PFB factory. Utilizing RFID throughout the process —tracking of raw materials, finished goods, and totes leaving the facility — can greatly increase the efficiency and throughput of the process. RFID can even be applied to change part detection to identify if the correct equipment is being swapped in or out during change over.