16
Aug, 2016

A novel optical apparatus for the study of rolling contact wear/fatigue based on a high-speed camera and multiple-source laser illumination

Rolling contact wear/fatigue tests on wheel/rail specimens are important to produce wheels and rails of new materials for improved lifetime and performance, able to work in harsh environments and at high rolling speeds. We have developed a novel non-invasive, all-optical system, based on a high-speed video camera and multiple laser illumination sources, which is able to continuously monitor the dynamics of the specimens used to test wheel and rail materials, in a Laboratory test bench.

3D macro-topgraphy and angular position of the specimen are simultaneously performed, together with the acquisition of surface micro-topography, at speeds up to 500 rpm, making use of a fast camera and image processing algorithms. Synthetic indexes for surface micro-topography classification are defined, the 3D macro-topography is measured with a standard uncertainty down to 0.019 mm, and the angular position is measured on a purposely developed analog encoder with a standard uncertainty of 2.9°. The operate with very small camera exposure time enables to obtain blur-free images with excellent definition. The system will be described with the aid of end-cycle specimens, as well as of in-test specimens.

Related Publications

Bodini, I.; Sansoni, G.; Lancini, M.; Pasinetti, S.; Docchio, F. “A novel optical apparatus for the study of rolling contact wear/fatigue based on a high-speed camera and multiple-source laser illumination“, Review of Scientific Instruments, Vol 87. 2016

Bodini, I.; Sansoni, G.; Lancini, M., Pasinetti, S.; Docchio, F. “Feasibility study of a vision system for on-line monitoring of rolling contact fatigue tests“, Journal of Physiscs: Conference Series, Vol 778. 2017

Bodini, I.; Petrogalli, C.; Mazzù, A.; Faccoli, M.; Lancini, M.; Pasinetti, S.; Sansoni, G.; Docchio, F. “On-line 2D monitoring of rolling contact fatigue/wear phenomena in dry tests“, Journal of Physics: Conference Series, Vol. 882. 2017

10
Sep, 2015

LASER ALLUMINIO: Real-time acquisition for laser welding monitoring

The objective of this project was to develop a vision system for the real-time acquisition and saving of images produced in laser welding processes. This activity represents an initial step in the context of a research project aimed at studying the relation among the welding parameters and the quality of the welds, as they are captured by the vision system, for the feedback of the welding parameters during the welding.

The Laboratory worked in collaboration with TubeTech Machinery srl (Cazzago San Martino, Brescia, Italy), that was the company interested into this study.
The hardware used to devop this application is the Embedded Vision System (National Instruments) with LabVIEW 8.6.1, the IMAQ Vision libraries and the Real Time module for LabView. The vision system is based on the cooperation between a Host PC (PCS), and the NI EVS 1464 device. The acquisition campaigns have been done on one of the welding machines  available at TubeTech Machinery.

Suitable image elaboration tools have been developed to extract information from the videos captured by the system.

9
Sep, 2015

SMART BREAK – Bialetti REstoration Adaptive Kit

SMART BREAK is a project funded by Regione Lombardia thanks to a grant in the field of “Smart cities and communities”, for ambient assisted living. Nine companies (Bialetti Industrie Spa, Connexxalife Srl, Elemaster Spa, Lampia Srl, Gualtiero Marchesi Srl, Synergie CAD Instruments Srl, SAEF Srl, Sait Srl, and Signal Srl), two universities (UniBS and UniBG) and one hospital (San Raffaele) have joined the SMART BREAK project, and Bialetti Industrie is the leading partner.

SMART BREAK will be a modular system: food will be heated, hot and cold drinks will be provided as well as smoothies and users will be profiled, to create a food diary.

The Laboratory contributes to the project and works on a vision system, based on a smart camera (VisionCam XS – Imago Technologies), which communicates by means of an HMI, via a Modbus Ethernet Protocol. The developed vision system is capable of reading EAN barcodes, for the food diary and of recognizing lunch boxes of known weight.

The machine under development. Ileana is working at the vision system.
Food containers and barcodes that have to be recognized.
present_photogrammetry.jpg
Examples of bar code detection.
21
Aug, 2015

Defect detection of mandrels using 3D Laser scanning

This project was committed to the Laboratory by Tenaris Dalmine, and was aimed at developing algorithms and measurement procedures for detecting defects in mandrels, for on-line inspection and quality control purposes.

The mandrels are scanned by using a laser slit: the profiles are acquired and the 3D map of the surface is obtained. Careful analysis of the 3D map allows the detection of surface defects.

The work is subjected to non disclosure agreements: the only available information is in the presentation below.

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5
Jan, 2011

A vision system for a labelling machine

In this work, a vision system specifically designed to monitor the labels on bottling lines for wine production industries is presented. The system is based on smart cameras, Real Time LabView sofware and IMAQ vision libraries. The work has been developed in the frame of a thesis work, in collaboration with Studio Progetti Automation srl (Italy). 

Bottling lines for wine are complex systems, which provide bottle rinsing, filling, capping, labelling, wrapping and pallettising. In this work, a vision system has been studied and implemented for the automatic control of the labelling machine. The bottling line, that is installed at Cantine Leonardo da Vinci (Tuscan, Italy), is characterized by a high level of automation, and is able to output 10.000 bottles per hour. However, the labeling machine is completely operator-dependant: three blocks of labels must be manually positioned on the machine for each wine brand. These are the front label, the back label and the DOCG label. The position of the labels with respect to the bottles is visually controlled and adjusted by the operators.

Due to human errors, it is possible that the operator mount on the machine labels corresponding to a wine brand different with respect to the one programmed on the bottling line. Early detection of this situation is mandatory to reduce downtime and, in the worse case, to avoid that the whole bottling process is performed from scratch.

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