Materials Today: Proceedings xxx (xxxx) xxx

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Materials Today: Proceedings

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Automated inspection system for automobile bearing seals

K. Ashwini, S.B. Rudraswamy
JSS Science and Technology University, Mysuru, India

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: Automation plays a wide role in industries in order to maintain high productivity, reliability and repeata-
Received 27 September 2019 bility. Automated quality inspection system yields cost effective, high reliable and high endurance quality
Accepted 13 October 2020 inspection process. The objective of the system is to eliminate errors occurred during manual quality
Available online xxxx
inspection by means of camera vision system and Leak Down Test [LDT] integrated together in a single
machine to serve the purpose. The system comprises the location and a physical model of the object
Keywords: to be inspected along with its quality parameters fed into the system to be achieved. This paper exhibits
Vision system
the results of the improved inspection accuracy by eliminating manual inspection and implementing
Leak Down Test [LDT]
Programmable Logic Controller [PLC]
automated inspection system. Each and every activities of the system are controlled and coordinated
using a Programmable logic Controller [PLC]. The system achieves efficiency by reducing the false rejec-
tion rate from 27% to 10% and false acceptance rate from 10% to 2%.
Ó 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Selection and peer-review under responsibility of the scientific committee of the International Confer-
ence on Advances in Materials and Manufacturing Applications.

1. Introduction This paper demonstrates the development of a special purpose

Quality of a finished product had become a crucial aspect in
many of the industries in order to achieve a good customer satis-
faction. Defective products results in breakdowns which ultimately
effects the production in case the product is used in an industrial
machinery. Downtime or low performance which ultimately lead
to customer dissatisfaction and this will subsequently increases
the production cost [1–5].
In order to maintain this quality parameter as an important fac-
tor inspection of each and every products plays a crucial role.
Inspection of any product can be either visual or computerized.
The visual inspection is one of the ancient type of inspection meth-
ods followed. The visual inspection involves a worker assigned to
check the product through his eyes. This system requires extre-
mely high skilled labor. The high skilled laborers are always an
expensive for the company and hard to find. The problems associ-
ated with visual inspection are time consumption, poor repeatabil-
ity and fatigue, which ultimately leads to lower quality control and
high production cost [6–9]. Hence, an artificial intelligence system,
in simple terms computerized or robotic inspection system can be
implemented which will be very much effective in terms of quality
control, efficiency and productivity and this system will provide
more precise result than the visual inspection system [10–14].
machine developed with the use of mechanical system and artifi-
cial intelligence in order to inspect and control the defined quality
parameter of a bearing seal. During the production span of a bear-
ing seal a certain number of manufacturing techniques or pro-
cesses are carried out. During this phase the seals are affected by
different types of defects caused by different manufacturing pro-
cesses. This in turn results on the quantity and ultimately on the
performance of the seal [15–17]. In an attempt to reduce the
defect, improve the quality of the seal and to enhance the produc-
tivity and efficiency numerous improvement in production tech-
nology are carried out. Even though improvements in the field of
production technology or manufacturing methods are carried out
it has not been possible to produce seals without defects, hence
elimination of these seals are very much important to avoid cus-
tomer complaints. False rejection [FR] and False acceptance [FA]
are the frequent error caused in the system. FR leads to decrease
of productivity and incurs loss, whereas FA would lead to under-
performance of the seals and customer complaints. False rejection
means the good seals rejected as defected and false acceptance
means the defected seals accepted as good one. This happened
due to error in manual inspection.
In order to overcome the above problem the possible solution
would be to utilize an artificial intelligence system for detection
of defects in the seals and to eliminate them before it passes on

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.matpr.2020.10.301
2214-7853/Ó 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Selection and peer-review under responsibility of the scientific committee of the International Conference on Advances in Materials and Manufacturing Applications.

Please cite this article as: K. Ashwini and S.B. Rudraswamy, Automated inspection system for automobile bearing seals, Materials Today: Proceedings,
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.matpr.2020.10.301
K. Ashwini and S.B. Rudraswamy
to the subsequent dependent manufacturing stages and dispatch
[18–19]. So we have proposed a system with automated inspection
methods.
2. Introduction
The special purpose machine constructed and integrated with
the artificial intelligence for automated seal defect detection sys-
tem consists of eight major stations is represented in the block dia-
gram as shown in Fig. 1.
The functioning of each station is as explained below:
 Loading station: This is the initial stage in the system where the
seals are picked and placed onto an indexing unit with the help
of pneumatic cylinders. The unit consists of major mechanical
elements like pneumatic cylinder, gripper, guide rods etc. for
pick and place of the seals from the conveyor and to the indexer
unit, and it also consists of electronic sensor which acts as an
input in the system for the pick and place.
 Camera Inspection Station: This is the second stage of the sys-
tem but primary stage of defect detection. In this stage the sys-
tem is equipped with most of the electronic system which has
camera and PLC. The camera and PLC holds the major roles at
this stage by behaving as the main defect detection system in
the process. The unit consists of OMRON PLC and Cognex
camera.
 Stage one Rejection: The third stage in the system is repre-
sented as the first rejection stage in the system holding the
responsibility of the seals to be rejected with the defects like
foreign material, ID (Inner Diameter) and OD (Outer Diameter),
ID and OD flash, unfill and mainlip cuts. The system consists of
simple pneumatic cylinders and magnetic sensors.
 Flipping Station: This is the third stage of the seal movement
where the seals which are passed in stage one quality inspec-
tion are flipped for stage two quality inspection. The major por-
tion of the equipment is basically controlled with mechanical
system and also utilizes sensors for the communication within
the system. The mechanical element in the system consists of
pneumatic cylinders, grippers, LM rails and electronic system
consists of proximity sensors, photoelectric sensors and optical
fiber sensors.
 LDT Inspection Station: LDT which is termed as Leak Down Test
is being the stage two inspection in the machine holding
responsibility for detection of leakages in the seals. The system
consists of a mechanical tool designed to mate with the seal for
the test that also consists of pneumatic cylinder, vacuum sys-
tem and a control system for indicating and recording of accep-
tance and rejection of seals under test.
Fig. 1. Block diagram of the proposed system.
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Materials Today: Proceedings xxx (xxxx) xxx
 Stage two Rejection: The unit holds the functional responsibility
as that of stage one rejection that will reject seals with respect
to leak detection test.
 Unloading Station: This is the final stage in the system mostly
buildup of mechanical elements inorder to take down seals
from the indexing unit and passing onto the unloading
conveyor.
Indexing unit: This system is being an intermediate system for
all the activities in the machine it acts as a central hub for each and
every process in the system by holding the responsibility to con-
vey/transfer the seals from one station to another with the help
of a motor. The system consists of a mechanically designed plate
for holding the seal, an electric motor for indexing and electronic
sensor for communication.
Above explained functional units are of the main importance in
the proposed system. Fig. 2 and Fig. 3 shows the mechanical design
for top view and isometric view of the machine and the prototype
of the same is developed to test the bearing seals.
3. Applied methodology
The initial stage in the production of seals is molding process.
Here the rubber component called as preform and the metal com-
ponent which is termed as stamping are fed into the molding
machine, and molding is carried out at prescribed temperature
and pressure in order to form the seal. The output seal from this
stage will possess additional material around it, which is termed
as flash and it needs to be removed in further processes. During
the molding process there might be chances of defects such as ID
(Inner Diameter) and OD (Outer Diameter) flashes, cut lip, unfill,
deformation, foreign material, sticking, bend and curing defect.
These defected seals needed to be eliminated before they reach
the customer end. This paper will elaborate how the elimination
is done with the help of special purpose machine.
In the inspection system the seals are fed into the vibro bowl
feeder by an operator from where it will reach the pick and place
location through a conveyor. There will be a seal presence check
sensor, it will check for the seal presence of seal on conveyor before
picking it. From the conveyor the seals are picked and placed on
loading station using pick and place cylinders. A proximity sensor
will be mounted at the loading station to check the orientation i.e.
metal side up condition. The sensor will check for metal presence,
if the condition satisfied then the signal will be passed to the PLC
(Programmable Logic Controller), which in turn will actuates the
pick and place cylinder to pick the seal from conveyor and to place
the seal into loading station using grippers. The processing time for
each stage will be programmed in the PLC. Once the loading time
has reached the PLC will activate the indexer motor, which in turn
leads to indexer plate rotation. The seals will have two sides: one
will be metal sided and the other will be metal sided. The vibrator
bowl feeder is designed in such a way that the seals are moved in
metal side up condition and the seals are subjected to camera
inspection (stage one quality inspection) in the same condition.
3.1. Camera inspection
A seal without any defects after quality analysis will be taken
and its image will be captured. The same image will be used to pro-
gram for good seal detection. The images are treated as master
images. Defected seal samples are collected and images are cap-
tured, based on this images the range to detect the defects will
be programmed. During the inspection process the images of each
seals are given as input to the camera, then the image will be
K. Ashwini and S.B. Rudraswamy Materials Today: Proceedings xxx (xxxx) xxx

Fig. 2. Top view of proposed system and descriptions.

Fig. 3. Isometric view of proposed system.
The ranges considered for inspection are defect colour and its
threshold value, area of defect and its boundary. The seals are seg-
regated as good and bad based on the camera results. Good seals
are moved to next station with the indexer rotation and bad seals
will be rejected there only. The PLC will get a signal from camera
output that whether the seals are good or bad. If the seal is good
then PLC will get positive signal which in turn will leads to indexer
plate rotation. If the seal is bad then the PLC will get negative signal
which in turn will leads to activation of push cylinders for the seal
rejection. After the camera inspection process the good seals are
moved to the next stage to check the defects on rubber. The seal
has to be flipped from metal side up condition to rubber side up
condition using a flipping cylinders. Once the good seals are moved
from camera inspection the PLC will get signal about it and then it
tends to actuate the flipping cylinders to flip the seals. The seals
will be flipped and placed in next station for air leakages. The
defects which are not detected by camera inspection (a small cuts
on seals) will be detected using Leak Detection Test (LDT). The
indexer plate will rotate towards LDT station based on PLC input.
The image captured for good seal and defected seals using
vision system is as shown in Fig. 5 and Fig. 7. Based on the images
the simulation results will be displayed for each defect on the seals,
and it will be indicated using red and green colour for presence and

Fig. 4. Camera inspection setup.

checked with the ranges of master images. The set up for seal
image capturing using camera is as shown in the Fig. 4. Fig. 5. Image of good seal.

3
K. Ashwini and S.B. Rudraswamy
Fig. 6. Simulation results of good seal.
Fig. 7. Image of defected seal.
Fig. 8. Simulation result of defected seal.
absence of the defects respectively. The simulation result for good
and defected seal is as in Fig. 6 and Fig. 8. In simulation results
green colour indicates the absence of defect and red colour indi-
cates the presence of defect.
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Materials Today: Proceedings xxx (xxxx) xxx
3.2. Leak down test [LDT]
It is a type of test in which the seal is checked to detect whether
the seal is good or bad using pressurized air. The seal will be placed
on a LDT station after indexer plate rotation. Pressurized air will be
passed onto the LDT tool, the seal will be holded in such a way that
there is no gap found. Even then if the air passes out from the seal,
then the seal will be treated as defected. If the seal withstands the
high pressured air then the seal is said to be good one. The LDT tool
will be connected to a separate controller and it will display the
condition of the seal (good or defected) after the test. Different
phases in Leak Down test will be indicated using a graph and it
is represented as in Fig. 9.
3.3. Phases of LDT
Stages involved in LDT are as represented in graph:
 Wait: at this phase the controller is waiting for start input from
the PLC.
 Filling: the stage where air get filled at set pressure.
 Settling: in this phase the stabilization of pressure and temper-
ature of seal under test will be done.
 Test: actual testing stage based on air leakage.
 Discharge: final stage of LDT.
Based on the result of LDT (Stage two quality inspection) good
seals and defected seals are segregated. The LDT passed seals are
moved to unloading station by indexer rotation and the LDT failed
seals are ejected out to rejection bin using push cylinder. From the
unloading station seals are moved to conveyor, then through the
pick and place arrangement seals are unloaded.
These all are the procedural steps of bearing seal inspection
machine. All the functional activities are controlled and coordi-
nated using a PLC. Proximity sensors are placed with each cylin-
ders, so based on up/down movement of magnet inside the
cylinder the sensors will send signal to the PLC. The PLC will then
actuates and controls all the output parts based on input signal
provided by the sensors. All the controlling activities are displayed
on a Human machine Interface [HMI] screen.
3.4. Programmable logic controller [PLC]
A Programmable Logic controller (PLC) is a controller in which
the user can program to control arithmetic, logic, timing, sequenc-
ing and counting operations for industrial machines. PLC can be
Fig. 9. Phases of LDT.
K. Ashwini and S.B. Rudraswamy Materials Today: Proceedings xxx (xxxx) xxx

Fig. 10. Ladder logic before simulation.

Fig. 11. Simulated ladder logic.

treated as an industrial computer as it has CPU, programming
device, input/output interface and memory [20–21].
‘‘Ladder Logic network” is used to program the PLC, in which
symbols are used instead of words. Normally opened (NO), Nor-
mally closed (NC), counters and timers are the symbols used to
build ladder logic network. In the network the current flow is indi-
cated by lines which are interconnected. The level of functionality
will be higher with increase in number of symbols. The program-
ming is represented by graphical diagram, electrical circuit dia-
gram is used for graphical diagram representation. The software
for PLCs will be developed using ladder logic network, where
sequential processor manufacturing operation is required. Con-
tacts are used in ladder logic which can make or break circuits to
control coils. In programmable controller’s memory each contact

5
K. Ashwini and S.B. Rudraswamy Materials Today: Proceedings xxx (xxxx) xxx

Fig. 13. Inspection results after automation.

Fig. 12. Inspection results before Automation.

or coil corresponds to a single bit status. At far right of each rung in  Output symbol: Coils
ladder language it has one coil typically. Some manufacturers a) —()— output coil, becomes active when the rung is closed or
allows more than one output coil in a rung. all contacts are closed and it will be inactive at rest.

 Input symbol: Contacts
a) —[ ]— Normally opened (NO), contact will become closed
when the input get energized. The contact will be opened
in remaining times.
b) —[\]— Normally closed (NC), contact will become opened
when the input signal get de-energized. The contact will
be closed in remaining times.
The coil represents an internal storage bit used in the pro-
gram or the PLC connected output operations. When the device
at rest, it would be indicated by the presence of a slash within
the actuators or checkers. The ladder logic network before the
online simulation and after the online simulation is as shown
in Fig. 10 and Fig. 11 respectively. After the online simulation
the green line across normally open and normally closed con-

6
K. Ashwini and S.B. Rudraswamy
tacts indicates the flow of power supply which in turn indicates
the results of the system.
4. Results and discussion
To verify and validate the proposed system, series of trials were
taken. The false acceptance and false rejection data while manually
inspecting the seals are collected to have as a reference in order to
compare it with the data of automated inspection.
Quality inspection for 1000 seals is done manually, FA and FR
data is collected. The data collected is represented in graph as
shown in Fig. 12. False rejection is maximum of 27% and false
acceptance is maximum of 15% which effected the efficiency of
the system. Graph in Fig. 12 represents the quality inspection val-
ues for every 1000 seals in manual inspection.
Several trials are taken after automation of the system using
1000 number of seals. The false rejection and false acceptance per-
centage is calculated and the graph is plotted which is as shown in
Fig. 13. After automation the false rejection rate is reduced to max-
imum of 10% and false acceptance is maximum of 2%. Graph in
Fig. 13 represents the quality inspection values for every 1000 seals
in automated inspection.
By comparing the data obtained before automation and after
automation the false acceptance and false rejection rate is reduced
which in turn leads to improve in efficiency of the system and also
to get the quality products.
5. Conclusion
In this paper, an automated quality inspection for bearing seals
is presented. The system consists of camera inspection and LDT
inspection methods which are the main functions of the proposed
work. The system yields high productivity, reliability and repeata-
bility and it is also cost effective. The errors occurred during man-
ual quality inspection are eliminated by using the camera vision
system and LDT in a single machine. The validation results shows
that the system provides better efficiency with eliminated manual
errors.
Declaration of Competing Interest
The authors declare that they have no known competing finan-
cial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared
to influence the work reported in this paper.
Acknowledgements
The work presented would not have been possible without my
close association with many people who were always there when I
needed them the most. I take this opportunity to acknowledge
them and extend my sincere gratitude for helping me make this
project a possibility. I am thankful to each and every people of
SKF Technologies (India) Pvt. Ltd. for all their support.
Materials Today: Proceedings xxx (xxxx) xxx
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