Station

Needle tubing inspection station.

Miniature stainless tubing is too small and too shiny to check well by eye, and sampling misses the odd bad piece. This station presents one tube at a time and looks at the cut end, the outline and the surface, so every tube gets a pass or a reject and a record.

Tell us about the system See how it works

What it catches

Which defects does the station look for?

Cut end

Burrs

Raised metal at the cut edge, on the outside or into the bore. A dark-field light makes a raised edge glow against the dark end face.

Tip

Hooked or rolled tips

A tip bent over or rolled in at the cut. The end-face camera sees the change in the shape of the opening.

Shaft

Bent shafts

A tube that is not straight. The backlit silhouette shows the outline against a straight reference.

Shape

Ovality and outside diameter

A tube that is out of round, or outside its diameter and length limits, measured from the silhouette.

Surface

Pits, scratches and dents

Marks on the outside wall. The side camera at 90° uses a low-angle ring light, so marks scatter light and show bright.

Bore

Inside diameter contamination

Debris, a slug or a closed bore. An optional through-bore light checks that light gets through the tube.

How it works

How does a tube move through the station?

The operator loads a tray

Tubes go in a tray at the station. Short runs and many part numbers suit a tray; long runs can use a feeder.

One tube at a time on a V-block

A feeder places one tube on a self-levelling V-block, so it sits in the same place and at the same height for every picture.

End face

A camera with a telecentric lens looks straight at the cut end. Coaxial, polarised light tames the glare from mirror-finish stainless, so burrs, tips and the opening show clearly.

Silhouette

A backlight under the tube and a camera above give a sharp outline for outside diameter, length, straightness and ovality.

Side view

A second camera at 90° with a dark-field ring light looks along the wall for pits, scratches and dents.

Through-bore (option)

Light at the far end of the tube shows whether the inside diameter is clear.

Sort and record

The PLC or PC sends each tube to pass or reject and logs the result with its heat number and work order.

The exact lenses, lights and limits are chosen in a bench test on your parts, not from a catalog.

The vision

What does the station see with?

Cameras

Built on Cognex In-Sight vision

Industrial smart cameras with edge-learning. The camera is taught from good and bad sample tubes, so a new defect type does not need a new program.

Optics

Telecentric lenses

The size of a tube in the picture does not change as it moves slightly toward or away from the lens, so measurements stay steady.

Lighting

Light made for shiny stainless

Coaxial, polarised light for the end face and a low-angle ring light for the wall, so glare does not hide a defect or fake one.

Records

What does each tube leave behind?

Per tube

One record for every tube

Pass or fail, the defect, the measurements, the heat number, the work order and the image, logged by the PLC or PC.

Data layer

Through MILO

The MILO (Modular Intelligent Learning Orchestrator) data layer collects every result and feeds it to your certificates and FAI and PPAP records, so nobody types results by hand.

Changeover

A recipe per part number

Lens, light levels and limits are stored per part number. The operator picks the job and the station loads its recipe.

How a project starts

How do we start on your tubing?

Step 1

Samples and limits

Your drawings, your accept limits, and a set of good tubes plus labelled rejects for each defect type.

Step 2

Bench test on your parts

We image the samples with each lens and light and report what the station finds and how repeatably.

Step 3

One-station pilot

One station with the feeder, the reject, the HMI and the records, run beside your current inspection.

Step 4

Handover

Recipes, backups and documentation support for your quality team, who review and approve the station.

FAQ

Questions about the needle tubing station.

QWhat size of tubing can the station handle?

Miniature stainless tubing in the needle and small-diameter range. The diameter, wall and length range for a station is set from your drawings and proven on your samples in the bench test.

QDoes it replace our laser micrometers?

No. Existing laser micrometers can stay the reference for outside diameter. Their readings can be logged into the same record as the vision result.

QWhy one tube at a time?

Tubes this small and this shiny need a fixed position, a fixed focus and the right light for each view. A V-block and a feeder give every tube the same conditions.

Next step

Start with your line.

Tell us what you make and what is getting through. Start with a feasibility study.

Tell us about the system