Case - Plastic mold | Metal appearance AOI

Customer background

A plastic-mold and stamped-metal plant with many SKUs. Export packing is strict on holes, bends and hems. First-piece and patrol checks cover faces A/B/C/D: missing/extra holes, bend done/not, hem done/not, and cracks. Focus is presence/absence, not dimensional metrology.

Visual sampling on shiny metal across many faces fatigues. SKUs switch often; standards vary. Escape into later process or export packing is costly. The plant needed station AOI with per-SKU models and a quality archive.

Pain points

Visual misses and false calls are high

Many faces, strong glare, mixed holes. Long staring misses defects before export packing.

Frequent model changes, uneven standards

SKUs change fast. People adapt slowly. Calls are not consistent across models.

QC depends on skilled inspectors

Skill sits with a few people. No image trail. Scaling the line does not scale QC.

Solution

An AOI station with top camera, ring/bar lights, hood, photo-eye trigger and fixture covers multiple faces. Per-SKU models for missing/extra holes, bend, hem and cracks. Pick the SKU on the industrial touch panel, auto-capture on arrival, overlay defects, PASS/NG.

Missing hole

Surface dent

Surface scratch

Images, defect types and calls archive locally. Stats by SKU and hour. Inference stays on the edge. Model switch supports flexible changeover and catches appearance defects before packing.