Many manufacturers in the wire and cable industry produce a variety of cables with different colors. Color tolerance is important for both the manufacturer and end users since multiple shades of the same color are produced for numerous types of cable. To ensure the integrity of the manufacturing process, Taymer International (www.taymer.com) has developed a system that measures the jacket colors of wire and cable products in-line.
The Color Verification (CV) system uses a Prosilica GC650C area-scan camera from Allied Vision Technologies to capture images of cable traveling at speeds greater than 4900 ft/min. To illuminate the cable, the system employs a Luxeon Rebel LED light source from Philips Lumileds (www.philipslumileds.com) fitted with a diffuse filter that spreads the light evenly across the entire field of view of the area-scan camera.
Once images have been captured, software evaluates each sample of wire and cable. By thresholding the images, the program isolates the jacket of the cable and a color measurement is then made. By comparing this measurement to reference colors stored in memory, the system evaluates whether the jacket color is acceptable.
The software provides real-time feedback by alerting operators when a color defect is detected. Saved images allow for review and verification of any color defects and can be used for quality reports at a later date. Further details can be found at http://bit.ly/R2lbiy.
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