Using a digital microscope camera ProgRes® C3 in Machine Vision for manufacturing precision micro injection moulding tools at Microsystems UK Ltd., UK

The main aim of the application

taking pictures to observing parts during factory acceptance tests

The requirements to the microscope camera

• images with good color
• good resolution
• high contrast
• low light capability
• high speed (live image & image acquisition)
• Firewire connection
• small file sizes for emailing customers
• suitability for machine vision and measurements
• Macintosh and Windows compatibility,
• Labview compatibility

The workstation & environment

Base:        
• Marzhauser x-y stage, custom anodized aluminium base, stainless steel focus mount shaft
Lens:        
• Optem Zoom 160
Lighting:    
• LED backlight and segmented ringlight, Schott halogen ringlight and coaxial light
Accessories:    
• Polarizers, Leica angle abservation mirror
System:    
• various, including Windows XP, Windows 7 and MAC OSX 10.6
Software:
• ProgRes® CapturePro (Mac and Windows)
• Labview (Windows)
• custom Labview measuring software

The advantages

The ProgRes® C3 camera has a good performance and image quality for the price. Mac OSX compatibility was one of the major advantages. Enclosure is anodized aluminium, and the cameras are very robust. The company Jenoptik is very reputable, and customer support is good.

The description of the application

Micro Systems UK Ltd. manufactures precision micro injection moulding tools, and during factory acceptance tests, we need a quick way of observing parts with features in the scale of microns. We use the camera to take pictures of manufactured mould tools and plastic parts, which we send to customers to keep them informed of progress. We also perform simple measurements to show sizes of features, scale of images etc. to highlight how close we are to meeting tolerance targets. We use other machine vision systems in combination with this system. The ProgRes® camera of Jenoptik combined with Optem Zoom lens fills the need for a quick and simple observation and measurement, so we know instantly whether we are meeting our goals. Inspection at each stage of production is vital; the sooner a mistake is spotted, the sooner it can be corrected, saving time and money. For measurements, ProgRes® CapturePro works well for simple tasks, but we also developed some software in Labview, using the image acquisition module. This allows advanced features such as edge and radius detection to be used. We can also export measurements to Excel, for customer reports. Jenoptik provides ActiveX and Labview drivers, which we were able to add to our Labview microscope measurement software. They provide a working example VI file which can be followed, and their application engineers were very helpful with responding to questions. The latest Labview and ActiveX drivers support our ProgRes® C3 model, and most other ProgRes® cameras of Jenoptik.  

Special features / tricks / hints

For a faster frame rate, we increase our light intensity, lower our exposure time, increase gain slightly, and make sure our computer meets the recommended specification, as the firewire bus is only as fast as the computer we are using.