Category: 500 Series

500 Series VisionGauge® Digital Optical Comparator Training – September 26th-27th, 2017

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500 Series VisionGauge® Digital Optical Comparator Training Class
September 26th & 27th, 2017
(9 am to 4 pm on both days)

500-series VisionGauge Digital Optical Comparator training

A VisionGauge® Digital Optical Comparator 500 Series training class will be held at VISIONx’s facility (Pointe-Claire, Canada) September 26th & 27th, 2017.

The class will start with a short refresher of VisionGauge® Digital Optical Comparator basics and will quickly move on to a review of the latest software enhancements and then onto more advanced topics, including automated programs.

This is a very hands-on class and – as always – we are very happy to look into the specific challenges of your real-world applications with you.

The training will be in English. There is no charge for current VisionGauge® Digital Optical Comparator users and lunch is provided on both days. Participants are responsible for their own travel, lodging and other expenses.

Email info@visionxinc.com to sign up, or if you have questions, want for information about nearby hotels, assistance with travel arrangements, etc…
Sign-up closes on September 8th at 5 pm (Eastern Time zone).

New Min/Max Tool for Automatic Part Alignment – Application Note

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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.
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
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.

500 Series Digital Optical Comparators

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…

Standard 12" travel stage

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.

Hard chrome plated X-axis stage, made of hardened tooling steel and with dual standard dovetail grooves for easy part fixturing.

Hard chrome plated X-axis stage, made of hardened tooling steel and with dual standard dovetail grooves for easy part fixturing on a Digital Optical Comparator
Digital Optical Comparator reflected illumination module

Reflected (i.e. front) illumination module

VisionGauge Digital Optical Comparator system in Vertical configuration
VisionGauge Digital Optical Comparator system in Vertical configuration. We can configure a system to meet your requirements!

 Overview Video:

500 Series VisionGauge® Digital Optical Comparators