Inspection System Example
Web Inspection System for Fiberglass Wind Blade Material
Line-scan machine vision that inspects continuous fiberglass webs for wind turbine blades.
Sciotex built a web inspection system that uses line-scan machine vision and proprietary software to find defects in wide, continuous-run material. Here it inspects long runs of fiberglass strands used to manufacture large wind turbine blades: 93 rods, each about 7.3 mm wide with roughly 150 µm gaps, glued to a web from behind.
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Example Overview
Line-Scan Inspection of Continuous Fiberglass Webs
What is a web inspection system?
Web inspection checks continuous, wide materials such as films, paper, nonwovens, metals and composites as they move through production. Line-scan cameras build an image one line at a time as the web passes, so the system can inspect the full width at production speed and flag defects before material is cut or used.
On this creamy-colored fiberglass, contrast had to be engineered. The material is front illuminated and the cameras view the specular reflection: rod surfaces reflect most of the light and appear bright, while the gaps transmit or scatter it and register much darker. That rod-and-gap contrast is what the software measures.
At a glance
- Material
- Fiberglass rods for wind turbine blade manufacturing
- Geometry
- 93 rods, about 7.3 mm wide, about 150 µm spacing
- Cameras
- Four line-scan cameras on 2-axis gimbals
- Lighting
- Blue collimated line lights, front illumination, specular viewing
- Software
- Proprietary defect detection software
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How It Works
How the Web Inspection System Works
Lighting, optics and alignment were engineered together so every rod and gap images with reliable contrast.
Blue collimated line lights at the specular angle.
Four aligned line-scan cameras cover the web.
Rods image bright; gaps image dark.
Rod and gap anomalies are found along the run.
Defects are located along the web for action.
What the System Does
Optics and Software Built for Continuous Webs
Most of the engineering in this system went into making defects visible before the software ever saw them.
Full-width line-scan coverage
Four line-scan cameras inspect the whole web continuously.
Blue collimated lighting
A shorter wavelength gives sharper focus, and collimation limits light on the rod walls.
Specular imaging
Viewing the reflection makes rods bright and gaps dark.
Precise camera alignment
A custom 2-axis gimbal aligns each camera in yaw and roll.
Hardware and Software
System Capabilities
The design combines line-scan imaging, engineered lighting and mechanical alignment. See machine vision for web inspection for more on the technique.
| Inspection type | Line-scan web inspection |
|---|---|
| Material | Creamy fiberglass rods glued to a web from behind |
| Rods | 93, each about 7.3 mm wide |
| Gaps | About 150 µm |
| Lighting | Blue collimated line lights |
| Optics | Front illumination with specular viewing |
| Alignment | 2-axis gimbal (yaw and roll) for each of 4 cameras |
Why blue collimated light
Lighting decided this application. Blue light and collimation together made the rods and gaps measurable:
- Sharper focus at a shorter wavelength
- Less illumination of the rod walls
- High contrast between rods and gaps
Need web or continuous material inspection?
Sciotex builds line-scan inspection systems for films, composites and other continuous materials.
Inspecting Continuous Materials?
Talk to a Sciotex engineer about web, film and composite inspection.
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