STEP FEEDER

CDS Manufacturing recently completed yet another step feeder system. These vibration free parts feeder systems have been selling at a record pace as an alternative to vibratory feeders.

They have posted a video of a step feeder system equipped with vision inspection equipment...

...

Here's the link....

STEP FEEDER VIDEO

...

The system shown in the video includes a step feeder, output conveyor, vision system, good / reject gating, and process controls for four different parts. Parts in the wrong orientation are diverted back into the step feeder. Mixed parts are gated as rejects, and good parts are fed off the end of the output conveyor.

CDS Manufacturing's Step Feeders offer low maintenance vibration free parts feeding with the ability to feed a wide variety of parts.

In a word..... Simple Reliability.

Contact CDS Manufacturing for more info on Step Feeders at....

.

CDS Manufacturing
1133 Mount Read Blvd
Rochester, NY 14606
585-254-0050
cdsmfg@netacc.net
http://www.cdsmanufacturing.com/

Automatic Vision Inspection System

Vision Inspection Machinery

Many inspection and sorting operations once thought to be strictly manual tasks have been made more efficient and economical with the use of vision systems. CDS Manufacturing has built many vision inspection machines for a wide variety of parts. Vision system manufacturers have made the integration and operation of this flexible technology simpler than ever, but looking at the parts with a camera is only half of the challenge.

Recently, we received an order for an automatic inspection system to sort ceramic fuse bodies for overall length. It is amazing to think that such an operation in this day and age is still done manually. Perhaps it is because many people can sort many parts in an hour whereas an automatic system may not be able to achieve an adequate throughput rate to keep up with production...Until now. CDS Manufacturing designed and built an automatic vision inspection machine to length sort these parts at a rate of 225 parts per minute. Achieving a part per minute rate that still allowed for inspection and by a vision system was kind of tricky though. Vision system cameras need to distinguish one part from another, so part separation is necessary. On the fly part gating is required to separate good and reject parts, and consistent orientation and part stability are equally as important.

The system that we developed achieved all of this, and more. We designed the system to feed the fuse bodies in a constant orientation to a conveyor belt. The conveyor belt fed parts at a greater inches per minute rate than the orientation track. Thus, part separation was achieved for vision inspection of the length of the part. The final product has proven to be a fast and efficient method for length inspection, and the customer couldn't be happier with their investment.

*
F. Scarson, III
Vice President
CDS Manufacturing