500 Series Archives - VISIONx, Inc.

The VisionGauge® Digital Optical Comparator’s new “Min/Max” software tool is the perfect solution for automatically aligning a part using a rotary stage. The tool can be setup to rotate the part and find the position that either minimizes or maximizes a dimension.

Common examples include the following:

Rotary stage and workholding for turnkey runout measurement application.
In this case, the Min/Max tool is used to align the flats on the part perfectly horizontally, completely automatically

Automatic alignment of a turbine blade fir tree

With this new Min/Max tool, it’s extremely easy to setup an automated routine for the alignment of any kind of part. Also, results are extremely repeatable. This advanced tool uses high-order interpolation for very accurate subsampling. This means that the position of best alignment can be found very accurately, at any orientation (not just at the sampled orientations).

This new tool is completely integrated with all of the VisionGauge® Digital Optical Comparator’s other tools so that all of its results can easily be recoded, transmitted, databased, sent to Excel™ or any other data capture application, put in a report, etc…

This new Min/Max tool further increases the wide range of applications that can easily and reliably be solved using the VisionGauge® Digital Optical Comparator.

Click to view this application note as a downloadable .pdf.

The VisionGauge® Digital Optical Comparator (Patented & Other Patents Pending) is a fully-digital drop-in replacement for traditional optical comparators. It works directly with your part’s CAD data and doesn’t require and overlays.

The system is extremely easy to use, and thanks to its advanced, patented CAD Auto-Align™ and CAD Auto-Pass/Fail™ tools, operators can compare parts to their CAD data completely automatically, directly on the shop floor.

VisionGauge® Digital Optical Comparators eliminate operator error and can automatically collect complete electronic documentation including measurements, statistics, Pass/Fail results, a high-resolution image of the part with its CAD overlay, etc.

The VisionGauge® Digital Optical Comparator can also be integrated into an automated work cell and controlled via Ethernet or RS-232 communications.

digital optical comparator automatic part alignment

Compared with traditional optical comparators, our VisionGauge® Digital Optical Comparators are competitively priced and offer numerous benefits:

Produce a very high contrast image with very sharp edge profiles so that there is no problem viewing it in full daylight
Are much more accurate
Allow the user to be much more productive and get more work done with a single machine
Include our patented CAD Auto-Align™ and CAD Auto-Pass/Fail™
Can compute and display the part’s deviation from nominal and compare it to bi-directional tolerances
Work directly with the CAD data so that no overlays / templates / Mylars™ are required
Can be used to collect images (either with or without the CAD data overlay and with or without annotations), measurements and data.
Can also carry out fully automated measurements (like a video CMM)
Can automatically send measurements, statistics and data to Excel™ or other external applications
Have a smaller footprint and use less floor space
Can be moved much more easily and without requiring re-calibration (i.e. “rolling cart” configuration is standard)
Have a much greater optical depth of field, i.e. (“everything is in focus all at once”)
Have a longer optical working distance (i.e. more clearance between the part and the lens)
Allow you to compare a part to its CAD data beyond the optical field-of-view! (because the CAD data tracks the part and follows the stage motion)
Have LED illumination for very stable illumination over a 10 year life. No more bulbs to change!

Standard 12″ travel X-axis stage with 0.5 micron resolution encoder and protective bellows around the 6″ travel Y-axis column. All 3 axes (X, Y and Z) have high-accuracy crossed-roller movements for optimal linearity and positional repeatability and high load carrying capability.

Thanks to their advanced patented technology, VisionGauge® Digital Optical Comparators are much faster, much more accurate and easier to use than traditional optical comparators.

And while traditional optical comparators require an overlay (i.e. a template or transparency), with the VisionGauge® Digital Optical Comparator everything is done electronically so that there are no more templates! You will never again have to buy, print, calibrate, verify, identify, trace, manage, and physically store & retrieve another template. No more template-related costs, delays or errors. The VisionGauge® Digital Optical Comparator works directly with your CAD data.

Digital Optical Comparators work directly with your CAD data. No more overlays.

Through their barcode reader and joystick interface, these systems are extremely intuitive and require only minimal operator training. The system can also be setup to allow on-screen measurements, to collect measurement statistics and to save the image of the part with its superimposed CAD drawing, etc, etc, etc…

And because they are fully digital, these systems allow you to collect complete digital records of the inspection and measurement operations.

VisionGauge® Digital Optical Comparators are very robust. They are perfect for both the shop floor and the Quality Control lab.

VisionGauge® Digital Optical Comparators are complete, ready-to-run Windows-based solutions and are delivered network-ready.

They are available in both horizontal and vertical configurations. They have industry standard dovetail mounting grooves for easy part fixturing.

VisionGauge® Digital Optical Comparators are available with transmitted (i.e. back) and / or reflected (i.e. front) illumination. All illumination is LED-based for very stable and repeatable illumination conditions over a very long life (no more bulbs to replace!). Furthermore, the illumination is programmable and computer-controlled. Everything is done through a single simple and intuitive software interface!

VisionGauge® Digital Optical Comparators have power focus & auto-focus!

They are available in industry standard 5X, 10X, 20X, 50X and 100X optical configurations, in either single or multi-mag configurations. Many other configurations are also available. We can configure a system to meet your specific requirements!

An optional high-resolution LASER module is also available for depth & height measurements.

VisionGauge® Digital Optical Comparators are competitively priced and have a very simple yearly calibration procedure that you can carry out yourself.

Please contact us for more information including a detailed spec sheet, a “Frequently Asked Questions” document, pricing, etc…