MU 2018 March April

26 MACHINERY UPDATE MARCH/APRIL 2018 www.machineryupdate.co.uk
Machine Vision Conference
Vision offers
options for
compliance
Returning to the Machine Vision
Conference this year, Crest
Solutions will demonstrate cutting
edge vision for manufacturing
industry compliance. At the same
time, UK key account manager
Phil Dearnaley will give a seminar
that will detail how machine vision
from Crest Solutions has helped
a pharmaceutical client to reduce
rework by one tonne per day.
The talk is designed to help
visitors learn how to achieve
compliance using leading
machine vision integration in a
pharmaceutical environment
while adhering to data integrity
regulations. Dearnaley will
show the challenges facing a
manufacturing facility as well
as providing insight into how
the correct vision application
can dramatically increase site
efficiencies while achieving full
compliance with FDA regulations.
full service offer
The company is now a full
service provider to clients in
the pharmaceutical industry
throughout Ireland, the UK
and through partner company
VistaLink in Benelux and
Scandinavia. Partnering with sites
to work towards optimum site
efficiencies and total compliance,
clients can benefit from additional
managed services such as
embedded engineering support,
dedicated competency based
training and access its knowledge
base built over 20 years of working
in validated manufacturing and
the packaging industry.
For pharmaceutical clients
requiring compliance with
regulations such as the EU-FMD
and DSCSA, Crest Solutions is
the exclusive partner of Antares
Vision that offers solutions for
serialisation, aggregation and
track & trace to sites in Ireland, the
UK, Benelux and Scandinavia.
To date, over 1700 lines have been
serialised by the Antares Vision
network globally.
T 01536 560275
W www.crestsolutions.co.uk
Integrating vision into
machine automation
Automation
specialist B&R
is introducing
an image processing
solution to the
UK market at the
Machine Vision
Conference (MVC).
This solution was
first introduced at
SPS IPC Drives in
Germany at the end
of last year, and
makes machine
vision an integral
element of the
automation ecosystem.
It includes
cameras, software
and lighting accessories
and is designed to be
seamlessly incorporated in
the automation system.
“Vision has often been an
add-on when dealing with
robot automation,” says
Stephen Radcliffe, marketing
manager for the UK & Ireland
at B&R Automation. “Our new
option takes out a whole layer
of processing and the reaction
from machine builders at
launch was overwhelmingly
positive,” he says.
Acrovision, one of the UK’s
vision inspection and barcode
reading integrators, will be
showing a cobot (collaborative
robot) working with its smart
vision cameras at the
one-day event.
The company says it is
finding that integrating cobots
into vision applications
is providing a safe and
cost-effective solution to many
vision applications where
product handling is an issue.
Recent applications include
guiding the robot with vision,
B&R’s vision portfolio ranges from simple to high-end units
At the heart of the solution is
a broad selection of intelligent
camera technology. Options
at the lower end will replace
simple machine vision sensors,
while the top of the range
will harness the full potential
of high-end smart cameras.
Also, ready-made software
components are available for
creating applications with
minimal new programming.
Lighting elements are
available integrated in the
camera, as an external
device, or even as a
combination of the
two. This makes
extremely precise
synchronisation
for high-speed
image capture and
object-specific
functions such as
bright-field or darkfield
illumination
easy to implement.
Image triggers and
lighting control can
be synchronised
with the rest of
the automation
system in hard real
time and with submicrosecond
precision.
B&R’s machine vision
system is integrated on every
level: the engineering tool,
the real-time operating system
and the application software.
With a single development
environment for every aspect
of automation, controls
engineers will now be able
to implement many machine
vision tasks on their own,
says Radcliffe.
T 01733 371320
W www.br-automation.com
Integrating cobots into vision applications
is proving a cost effective handling option
providing the robot with
x-y co-ordinates for
‘pick-and-place’, or the robot
is moving the camera for
multiple inspections of the
same particular part.
The key advantage of using
cobots is that as well as being
very easy to program, they
are also inherently safe
(subject to risk assessment),
to allow them to work with
and alongside humans, says
the company.
T 0845 337 0250
W www.acrovision.co.uk
Acrovision will demonstrate a
collaborative robot working with
its smart vision cameras