In the automobile manufacturing industry, parts inspection is a key link to ensure the quality and safety of automobiles. In this process, the lens as the core component of the machine vision system directly affects the accuracy and efficiency of the inspection. Varifocal Lens and zoom lens in the automotive parts inspection in their respective strengths, are helpful to automotive manufacturing enterprises to optimize the inspection process, improve product quality.

Importance and Challenges of Automotive Parts Inspection

Automobile consists of many parts and components, and the quality of each part and component is related to the performance and safety of the whole vehicle. During the production process, the parts may have problems such as dimensional deviation, surface defects and poor assembly. If these problems are not detected in time, they will not only affect the normal use of the car, but also may lead to serious safety accidents. Therefore, efficient and accurate parts inspection is crucial. However, automotive parts are diverse, with different shapes and sizes, and different inspection requirements, which brings many challenges to the inspection work. How to choose the right lens to meet the inspection needs of different parts has become an important issue for automotive manufacturers.

Application of Varifocal Lens in Automotive Parts Inspection

Overall inspection of large-sized parts

In automobile production, large-sized parts such as body frames and doors need to be inspected for their overall appearance and dimensions. Varifocal Lens has the characteristic of continuously variable focal length, which can flexibly adjust the shooting range and angle of view without changing the lens. The inspector can first use the wide-angle end to obtain the overall image of the large-sized parts, and quickly check whether its shape meets the design requirements, and whether there is any obvious deformation or defects. Then, bring the lens closer by varifocal to locally zoom in on key parts, such as welding points, mounting holes, etc., to measure their dimensional accuracy and ensure the quality of the parts. For example, in the inspection of the body frame, the Varifocal Lens can shoot the whole frame from a long distance, and then gradually zoom in to carry out a detailed inspection of each welded part, which greatly improves the inspection efficiency and reduces the time loss due to the replacement of the lens.

Dynamic inspection scene

In the automated production line, automotive parts are often in high-speed movement. Varifocal Lens's fast varifocal ability makes it possible to real-time tracking of parts in motion, capturing the image of its different moments. This is critical for detecting the performance and quality of parts in a dynamic process. For example, in the production line of an engine piston, the piston is in high-speed motion, the Varifocal Lens can quickly adjust the focal length to capture images of the piston at different stroke positions, detecting whether there are scratches on the surface, wear and other defects, and whether the piston's fit gap with the cylinder wall is in line with the standard. This kind of real-time dynamic inspection can detect problems in the production process in time and avoid the generation of defective products.

Application of zoom lens in automotive parts inspection

Microscopic Inspection of Precision Parts

Precision parts such as injector nozzles and spark plugs in automobile engines require extremely high precision. The zoom lens can provide multiple high magnification observation to meet the needs of micro inspection of precision parts. The inspector can first carry out a preliminary inspection of the overall structure of the precision parts in the low magnification state to confirm whether their appearance is complete and whether there is any obvious damage. Then, by switching to the high-magnification state, the microstructure of the parts, such as the injection holes of the injectors and the electrodes of the spark plugs, etc., can be examined in detail to see whether there are problems such as blockage, wear and deformation. Taking the fuel injector inspection as an example, the zoom lens can magnify the nozzle hole dozens or even hundreds of times, clearly presenting the internal structure of the nozzle hole and the surface quality, and ensuring that the nozzle's fuel injection performance meets the requirements.

Internal Inspection of Complex Structural Parts

Some automobile parts, such as transmission gearboxes, steering gears, etc., have complex internal structures. Zoom lens with endoscope and other equipment, you can go deep inside the parts for inspection. Under low magnification, the inspector can observe the overall structure of the internal parts and understand their assembly. When suspicious parts are found, the zoom lens is switched to high magnification to detect defects in critical internal parts, such as the tooth surface of gears and the raceways of bearings. This non-destructive internal inspection method can timely detect potential problems inside the parts and improve the reliability and service life of the products.

Selection Recommendations

In automotive parts inspection, the choice of Varifocal Lens or zoom lens, should be based on specific inspection needs to decide. Need to carry out overall detection and dynamic detection, Varifocal Lens is more advantageous; for microscopic detection and internal detection, zoom lens can play a better role.