FST keeps quality in focus with new visual inspection machine

WEINHEIM, Germany—Quality, it turns out, is about perspective.

The right perspectives highlight your strengths and illuminate areas for improvement. And when it comes to your products, seeing them through the right lens can ensure they come as close to perfection as possible.

With that in mind, Freudenberg Sealing Technologies is zeroing in on its zero-defect product goals by implementing a visual inspection machine that enhances perspectives of its products, allowing it to provide the highest quality possible for customers.

"We're constantly looking for ways to improve our production processes," said Robert Scavuzzo, vice president of Freudenberg's Global Advanced Manufacturing Technology group (AMT). "The updated, machine-vision technology is the next step in the evolution, helping us to more effectively meet zero-defect mandates, while providing clear benefits to our customers and end users."

Scavuzzo was included on an in-house team of engineers that designed and built the visual inspection machine—dubbed FVision GP 50—which combines vision control technology and advanced automation to streamline and enhance the inspection process.

As each part is inspected, the FVision GP 50 compares it with hundreds of previously approved parts to detect differences and distinguish between actual defects and random process variations such as those caused by dirt or dust.

FVision GP 50 will analyze the parts for defects, record any anomalies or imperfections and pull any products that don't meet Freudenberg's quality standards.

The first FVision GP 50 was installed at FST's Morristown, Ind., plant in January. Two more of the machines are destined for the location and will be installed by year end.

And Michael Vieth will take them all. As manufacturing engineering manager at the Morristown plant, he is happy to have the FVision GP 50 on the shop floor.

"The new products that we're launching, at least a couple of them were very complex in geometry," Vieth told Rubber News. "They have a lot of sealing surfaces on them and they are very small parts, so we knew that human visual inspection was certainly not going to cut it. We wanted a vision system to quality-check all the product."

Stationed at the end of the production line, the FVision GP 50 can inspect up to 10 parts per second, though the actual rate of inspection may be limited by the feeding rate.

That's quite a feat for the 4-foot-by 4-foot machine, which clocks in at less than half the size of other glass-plate, visual-inspection equipment available on the market, Vieth said.

"(The small size) is very important for us in the manufacturing site," Vieth said. "We really fight for floor space. We are really packed in with all the machines we have in-house here, so a smaller footprint is a huge advantage for us."

And the best part? The machine is easy to learn and even easier to implement into the manufacturing process.

"We take parts in bulk and our operators will dump them into a feeding system, so it feeds the parts, it singulates them and feeds them up to a glass plate. The glass plate is a disc that rotates under and over the cameras. That's where the inspection occurs," Vieth said.

From there, the machine analyzes the parts and moves them into designated bins once they are approved or rejected for shipment.

According to FST, the initial application is designed to conduct about 20 different surface inspections, but flexibility was built into the FVision GP 50. Additional surface inspections and/or adherence to dimensional tolerances can be added as needed.

"It is based on the complexity of the part," Scavuzzo said, noting that FVision can be fitted with as many as six cameras. "The different angles allow you to look for potential defects. If you have ribs that are on the product line and you have to get to the side of the product to look, it is quite different than if you have an O-ring that you just have to look at the top and bottom. It depends on the complexity of the part you're looking at and the type of defects (you're looking for)."

Morristown is far from the only Freudenberg facility poised to make use of the FVision GP 50 technology. Plants in Germany—in Oehringen, Oberwihl and Weinheim—and Bristol, N.H., are expected to add their own units soon.

In fact, Scavuzzo estimates that the FVision GP 50 eventually could be used in 80 percent of FST's plants with minimal design changes, while the camera, illumination and software would be customized for specific applications.

It's also Industry 4.0-ready, an important facet in the design, which will make it even more efficient. As a central piece in a real-time communications network, it would have the potential to stop the injection process as soon as too many defects are detected. Misalignments and other issues can be addressed immediately by operators, increasing FST's ability to eliminate production of defective components.

"There is no room for product defects," said Helmut Hamfeld, senior engineering specialist for FST's AMT. "Customers want perfect parts every time. Our new machine vision inspection technology makes such demanding requirements easier and considerably less expensive to achieve."

All told, it took just about six months for the FVision GP 50 to go from a concept to a part of the Morristown manufacturing process.

The design team, which included Scavuzzo and Scott Sulhan, a Plymouth, Mich.-based senior engineer who specializes in robotics and mechanical engineering, was led by Hamfeld, who is based out of Freudenberg's Weinheim headquarters.

Ultimately, though, it was Sulhan who built the FVision GP 50—piecing it together as the various parts were manufactured and delivered. He also worked on-site in Morristown to help make sure the machine was ready and running as needed.

There are a number of advantages to having the machine designed and built by FST employees. The approach allowed Freudenberg to lean into its own resources, saving on time and energy in the long run. But it also ensured the on-going operational maintenance of the machine.

Moreover, Vieth said, the FST team comes to the table with an in-depth understanding of the parts being made, the potential defect risks and built-in expectations for quality. These are all things that would have to be communicated with an outside team had FST purchased a third-party visual inspection machine.

"We have Freudenberg employees who we can reach out to if there are ongoing issues or have them troubleshoot these vision systems," Vieth said. "It is a very closed-loop circle compared to working with outside vendors and calling them in if we have problems."