A new machine automatically sorts small parts, making a full 360-degree scan of each piece, checking as many as 30 critical dimensions on each, and sorting them into PASS or FAIL chutes. Capable of up to 4 inspections per second, to accuracies of 0.0002”, the machine can examine as many as 900 parts per hour. Parts with diameters up to 1.000” and lengths to 1.750” can be handled.Heart of the new machine is the proprietary ShadowGage(R) non-contact video measuring system created by the manufacturer, Resec Systems, Inc. of Bergenfield, NJ. In operation, the parts are loaded via a bowl feeder or gravity track. A screw-driven pushrod then moves them, one at a time, onto the machine's rotary stage. The stage revolves the part through 360 degrees in front of the ShadowGage's video lens, while predetermined measurements are optically made of various dimensions, typically diameters, lengths, angles, and radii...virtually anything that casts a shadow. Tolerances can be individually applied to each dimension. Because a part is rotated through a full 360 degrees, maximums, minimums, out-of-round, and TIR can also be measured. All inspection data can be saved to a file.
