M

MECH 36660 56600 - MAN

NUFACT
TURING G ENGIN
NEERING
G
A
ASSIGNM MENT 2 - PART
T1
ue: 4:30pm,, 10th May 22013 (Week
Du k 9)
T
THIS ASSIIGNMENTT (PARTS 1 and 2 COMBINED),, SHOULD D TAKE AN
N
AVER
RAGE PAIIR OF STU
UDENTS AP PPROXIM MATELY 8 HOURS TO COMPL LETE.

PART 1
D
During the MManufacturinng Processees part of MECH3660 5660 5 you haave been givven a numbeer of tutoriaals that
shhould help you with your seconnd assignment. In Asssignment 2 Part 1 yoour task is to comparre two
m
manufacturinng processees sourced from
f your notes, text books etc, to enable the manufaacture of geearbox
coovers from your choseen grade off Aluminium m. Your subbmission is to be in a formal repoort format with w a
coonclusion / recommenndation aboout which of your tw wo chosenn manufactuuring methods is the most
f a quantitty of 100 annd 1000. At this stage coost is not a ddriving factor in the deccision.
apppropriate for

Fig 11.0 Gear-boox cover

Thhe minimum
m topics to bbe covered iin your discuussion and analysis
a incclude but is not
n limited tto the follow
wing;

1. Material S Selection: Iss your choseen material grade approopriate for thhe manufactturing proceesses chosenn?
1aa. Section Seelection: If yyou are chooosing a stanndard sectioon of Aluminnium pleasee note its chaaracteristicss.
2. Fixtures aand Jigs: Deetail and deesign what iis required in order to support thee gearbox ccover duringg your
chhosen manuffacturing prrocesses.
3. Discuss aand detail inn great deppth your chhosen manufacturing prrocesses annd how it iss applied too your
geearbox cover.
3aa. Discuss aany Post Maanufacturingg Processess that are reequired after your mainn manufactuuring methood has
beeen defined.

Skketches, CN
NC code, Maatlab script, Excel Workksheets etc must
m be inclluded and inntegrated innto your repoort.
 MECH3660/5660Assignment2

Part2

MachineVisionandVisionBuilderforAutomatedInspection
Due:4:30pm,10thMay2013(Week9)

THIS ASSIGNMENT (PARTS A and B COMBINED), SHOULD TAKE THE

AVERAGE STUDENT APPROXIMATELY 6-8 HOURS TO COMPLETE.

ProjectOverview

We have been tasked with designing and implementing a machine vision system to inspect long life milk
cartonsastheymovealongaproductionline.
Animageofoneoftheseproductsisshowninfigure1below:

Figure1:Imageofatypicalmilkcarton

Theproductpackagingis90mmby60mm,andis190mmtall.Eachpackcontainsalitreoflonglifemilk.
The manufacturer needs the vision system to read the expiry date on each pack to ensure the carton has
sufficient shelf time before it is packed into a box. The capping machine has also been playing up and the
vision system needs to check for the presence of the lid. The last requirement is that the printing on the
cartonischeckedforanyskewing.

PartA:DeterminingappropriateMachineVisionHardwareforthejob

Inordertogetaclearimageofthecartons,wewillneedtoconsider:
Therequirednumberofpixels
Therequiredpixeldepth
Theconveyerspeedandthenumberofpackspassingbythecameraeachminute
Thecameraframerate
Theplacementofthecamera
Thefocallengthofthelens
Themethodofilluminatingthepacksontheconveyer

As is common in such projects there are certain constraints on the hardware selection such as the
manufactureralreadypossessingsomeitemsanditemavailability.


Question1:
Themanufacturerhasalreadypurchasedacamerathatcontainsa1/2"(6.4mmX4.8mm)CCDsensorwith640
X480pixels.Thesmallestobjectwemayneedtoresolveonthelabelisthelinesontheopeningdiagram,the
smallestofwhichinboththehorizontalandverticaldirectionsare0.3mmthick.Thisdiagramisshownbelow.

Figure2:OpeningDiagram,showingsmallfeatures

Willtheexistingcamerabesuitabletocapturethepackimages?

Question2:
Anothercartonsometimesprocessedontheproductionlinehasaminimumobjectsizeof0.2mm.WhichCCD
arrayfromthoselistedbelowwouldyouchoosetotakeimagesofthispack?

a. 1/2 CCD, 640x480

b. 1/2 CCD, 1024x768
c. 1/2 CCD, 768x576
Question3:
The lens on the existing camera has a focal length of 15mm. When the camera is mounted, what distance
shouldbeleftbetweenthelensandthetopofthecarton?

Question4:
Thecameraiscapableoftaking10pictureseverysecondandthecartonsarearrangedonaverage30mmapart
ontheconveyerbelt.Whatspeed(inmeterspersecond)shouldtheconveyerbeltmoveat?Assumingthe
factoryoperatesfor12hoursaday,howmanycartonsadaycanbeprocessed?

30mm

Figure3:Layoutofcartonsonconveyer.

Question5:
One of the requirements of the project is that at least two years worth of data (images) is stored on the
controlcomputer.NotethatthefactoryonlyrunsMondaytoFriday.Westoreourimagein8bitgreyscale
usingtheclientsexistingcamera.Howmuchstoragewouldbeneededtoallowthetwoyearsofimagesto
remain on the control computer? Disregard any header information and file compression. Note the
following conversion factors for data storage:

1 byte = 23 bits = 8 bits

1 kilobyte (kB) = 210 bytes = 1,024 bytes
1 megabyte (MB) = 220 bytes = 1,048,576 bytes
1 gigabyte (GB) = 230 bytes = 1,073,741,824 bytes
1 terabyte (TB) = 240 bytes = 1,099,511,627,776 bytes

Question6:

Considerthatthecartonsaremadefromashinymaterialprintedwithblacktextonawhitebackground.
Our conveyer is in a manufacturing building with windows on all 4 sides, and the objects are moving quite
rapidlyunderthecameraaseachimageisbeingcaptured.
Describe what type of lighting setup you may need to use to illuminate the packs as they pass under the
camera.

PartB:AnalysingtheAcquiredImagesusingVisionBuilderforAutomatedInspection

Oncewehavesetupourimagingsystemwithcamera,lens,lighting,framegrabberandcomputer,wecanuse
VisionBuilderforAutomatedInspection(VBAI)toanalyseourimages.

As noted previously, the manufacturer needs the vision system to read the expiry date on each carton to
ensurethecorrectcartonsleavethefactoryandalsocheckforthepresenceofthecap.Wewillalsocheck
thattheprintingonthepackisnotskewed.

Use VBAI to develop the inspection system, by starting with a Simulate Acquisition Step, and setting the
imagedirectorytothedirectorycontainingthesuppliedcartonimages(carton01.jpgtocarton12.jpg).The
Imageswillbeavailableinthelecturefolderforweek7.
Youwillthenneedtofindandconfiguretheappropriatestepstoachievethefollowing:

1. Measuretheanglebetweentwoadjacentlinesboundingtheopeningdiagramtoensuretheprinting
hasnotbeenskewed.Theangleshouldbebetween89and91degrees.
2. Checkthatthecapispresentandfailanycartonmissingthecap.
3. ReadtheexpirydateusingacustomCharacterSetFilethatyoutrainwithexamplecharacters.
4. UsetheCalculatorsteptocheckthatthereadexpiryyearisgreaterthanthecurrentyear.Failifit
isequaltoorlessthanthecurrentyear.
5. Failtheinspectionifanyoftheconditionsarenotmet.
6. Benchmark your project for 100 inspections and take a screenshot showing the speed of your
processing.Myunoptimisedprojectrunsatabout470msperimage.Includeyourbestresultinyour
document.

Tips:
Youcanuseavisionassistantsteptoimprovethebrightness/contrastofanimage.
Youcanuseavisionassistantsteptoextractagreyscaleimageusingtheextractcolourplanestep.
HavealookaroundinVBAI,theremaybeseveralwaystocompleteeachtask.

Calculatorstep:
The VBAI calculator step you use is a small piece of LabVIEW embedded in VBAI. You will have to set your
inputsusingtheEditInputs/Outputsbuttontogetthecharactersyoureadthatrepresenttheexpiryyear.
RemembertousetheVBAIhelpifyougetstuck.Thecalculatorstepallowsyoutosetthepassorfailofthe
steptodependontheresultofsomeLabVIEWcode.Thefollowingfunctionsmaybeuseful:

FormatDate/TimeString.Thiswilloutputthecurrentyearas
text.The%yconstanttellsthefunctiontoreturnjustthelast
twodigitsoftheyear.

DecimalStringToNumber.Thisfunctiontakesatextinputon
theleftandoutputsadecimalnumber.

ConcatenateStrings.Usethisfunctiontojoinstringstogether

GreaterOrEqual?.Comparestwonumberinputs.Willoutput
Trueifthetopinputisgreaterthanorequaltothebottom
input.Therearemanytypesofcomparisonfunctionsavailable.

NOT.Booleanfunctionthatinvertsbetweentrueandfalse.

Youmayuseanyotherfunctionsavailableinthecalculatorsteptocalculatetheresult.

SubmissionInstructionsandMarkingCriteria

PleasesubmityourSignalExpressprojectviaemailtophambleysubmissions@gmail.comby4:30pm,10thMay,
2013.

EnsureyouremailsubjectincludesthetextMECH3660/5660
EnsureallyoursubmittedfilesincludeyourSIDinthefilename

Iftheserulesarenotadheredtoyourassignmentwillnotbemarked!

PartA:Submityouranswers,calculationsandreasoningasaworddocumentorpdf.

PartB:SubmityourVBAIprojectfile.IncludeyourprojectbenchmarkscreenshotinthePartAdocument.

YourVBAIProjectwillbeusedtoanalyseyourmethodologyandunderstandingofthesoftwarepackage.Itwill
be used to provide partial marks where relevant. Logical step selection and ordering in the VBAI project is
critical.Tomaximisemarks,ensureyourstepshavemeaningfulnames.