Automation equipment first began to be used in the automotive industry in the 1950s. Its many forms have since spread to a wide and diverse range of industries. The manufacturing industry in particular has benefitted greatly from automated assembly equipment, and for more than 60 years, Ahaus Tool and Engineering has been offering customers high-quality solutions to their automation equipment needs.
In addition to improving efficiencies across the board, these powerful production and processing tools make production environments safer by minimizing the necessity of worker interaction, and they facilitate never-before-seen levels of speed and accuracy in the generation of parts and products. And these systems only will continue to evolve.
The “Eyes” of Robotic Systems Integration
In addition to the heightened sensitivity and superior flexibility that robotic machinery now offers, the capabilities of these systems have been even further enhanced in recent years by “machine vision.” Depending on the requirements of a specific application, cameras of various degrees of sophistication are integrated with robotic equipment to increase accuracies and perfect processes.
In a manufacturing setting where acute precision and reliable repeatability are required, these vision guidance systems must be extremely dependable and consistent. They are designed to find or “acquire” an object; analyze and distinguish it from other objects in the vicinity; and transfer that information to a computing mechanism that will direct the actions of the machinery.
Machine vision cameras and guidance systems use various techniques such as 3-D imaging and laser scanning to locate objects and carry out functions. They are programmed and calibrated with minute precision in direct accordance with the task they are required to perform.
Through a combination of delicate sensing devices, complex software programs and agile equipment, robotic machinery is now capable of performing procedures that are quite intricate, requiring relatively little human involvement. And with the latest generation of vision guidance systems being incorporated into these automated apparatuses, precision machining has indeed become an “exact” science, one that Ahaus’ team of engineers has mastered.