Vision tightens up PCB inspection A vision system is being used to in- spect connectors for printed circuit boards at the Katrineholm, Sweden, plant of manufacturing company Ericsson. The CEJvision system installed by Swedish firm C E Johannson enables inspection to be carried out at full manufacturing speed with greater precision than is possible with manual inspection, says Ericsson. In addition, the sys- tem has identified a number of con- nector faults that had previously gone unnoticed.

The vision system is being used to inspect ‘Euroconnectors’ on three assembly lines; one camera per line is coupled to the vision system. Each connector to be inspected has 96 holes, certain of which have contact pins. The vision system checks dur- ing assembly that there are two CEJvision system installed at contact pins in each relevant hole. Ericsson’s PCB plant has discovered

Four images are taken and ‘new ’ types of fault

Optoelectronics database launched by

Battelle A database of optoelectronic mea- suring and testing instruments for automated visual inspection is being established by research institute Battelle from its Frankfurt, FRG, office. More than 400 instruments are already included, including grey- scale image processors (205 pro- ducts), binary image processors (69 products), line processors, laser scanners and 3D vision systems. The database is so far dominated by products from the USA, numbering 188.

In addition to specific data on automated inspection systems, the investigation deals with practical uses of the systems and solutions to specific inspection problems. (Battelle Institute Ltd. 15 Hanover Square, London WIR 9AJ, UK. Tel. 01-4930184) 0

analysed for each Euroconnector, after which the connector is either approved or rejected; this process takes about 0.5 s-much faster than the 25 hole per second rate that can be achieved by manual inspection. Aside from the reduced risk of faulty contacts being approved, says Ericsson, the vision system has led to the discovery of previously un- noticed faults such as small plastic

Inspection start-up R&D and instrumentation firm Sira of the UK has established a new company to supply industrial vision and automatic inspection equip- ment. To be known as Image Auto- mation Ltd, the company’s products will be based on systems using tele-

particles in the contact pin holes. 0 vision, solid-state imaging, - laser

scanning and image processing. ‘The formation of the company follows the Sira group’s philosophy of setting up subsidiary operations to exploit commercially specific areas of expertise,’ commented Sira managing director Terry Flanagan. (Image Automation Ltd, c/o Sira Ltd, South Hill, Chislehurst. Kent BR7 5EH, UK. Tel: 01-467 2636)

GEC RESEARCH LTD

Hirst Research Centre, East Lane, Wembley, Middlesex HA9 7PP. UK

Electronic Engineer or Computer Scientist with maths is required for the development of computer vision algorithms for fast hardware implementation. The work is part of an Alvey project on 3D Computer Vision involving GEC Research, The University of Sheffield, The University of Edinburgh and IBM UK aimed at developing the next generation of machine vision systems capable of operating in a variety of environments where 3D perception is required.

A range of low-level image processing and stereo vision algorithms have been developed and hardware designers at GEC Research have begun work on their implementation on fast hardware. Further work is needed to bridge the gap between the algorithms produced by the vision researchers and the requirements of the hardware engineers and to investigate the best ways of implementing the algorithms in parallel or on video-stream hardware.

Experience of FORTRAN, c, Unix and LISP and of image and signal processing work or computer vision would be an advantage.

Please apply to Mrs V P Whippey, Staff Department, quoting ref: CV/2

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