Flash, short shots and sink marks escape the eye at line pace. 3D profile plus 2D imaging decide after each cycle and feed defect data back to process settings.
Typical moulding defects are flash, flow marks, short shots, delamination and sink marks. They are hard to see on low-contrast surfaces, translucent material or complex geometry, and manual visual inspection at line pace amounts to sampling rather than full inspection.
The client relied on mechanical sensors plus human eyes. Sensors only confirm presence, operators only see the outside, and deep cavities and raised edges, where defects concentrate, were effectively unchecked.
Equipment and consumables commonly used in this scenario, configurable to your site.
Zebra ZT411 industrial printer with a 4.3-inch colour touchscreen, up to 600 dpi and redundant interfaces, for mid-size lines and warehouse traceability.
Datalogic Skorpio X5: enterprise Android, octa-core Qualcomm, IP65 sealing and a 4-inch display, for warehouse, manufacturing and retail data capture.
Zebra ZD421 desktop printer with flexible interface options, covering office, retail and light industrial labelling.
Datalogic PowerScan 9100 industrial scanners, built to last, with medium and long-range 1D reading for warehouse, manufacturing and logistics.
Datalogic AV500 and AV900 high-end fixed-mount vision readers that handle attended or unattended lines and read reliably on fast conveyors.
Custom adhesive labels in coated paper, synthetic, PET and matte silver, in custom sizes and winding, with sample print trials before bulk orders.
Based on the site conditions, we delivered the following custom solution.
The inspection cell stands beside the moulding machine and the part moves into it straight after ejection, so machine time is not consumed. A dual-camera single-laser 3D profile sensor covers the surface transitions on complex parts and reduces the scan gaps caused by optical occlusion, so deep cavities and raised edges are fully modelled.
3D data carries dimensions and form, 2D images carry appearance and colour variation, and the decision is made after fusion. Flash, a defect of very small height difference, is almost invisible to a 2D camera alone; with profile data the criterion becomes measurable.
Results are recorded by defect type, position and time and compared against machine parameters. It becomes visible whether a defect class appears after a tool change or correlates with mould temperature and hold pressure. That is what moves inspection from sorting out bad parts to producing fewer of them.
Moulded parts carry no code, and what has to be judged is surface defect and assembly completeness, so the choice is vision rather than decoding. Lighting follows the defect: a low-angle ring for scratches and sink marks, backlight for missing or wrong parts where the silhouette is what matters.
Triggering is by photoelectric sensor rather than a timer, so a frame is taken only when a part is present and neither empty shots nor missed parts occur. Rejection is by air blow, completed before the next index so the station does not lose cycle time.
Key steps and engineering details from the deployment.
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