InGage Discovery Offers Instant, Automated Video Metrology

Six Sigma Concepts’ InGage Discovery is an automated video metrology system designed to give quick and accurate measurement feedback for turned and molded parts. The Discovery immediately inspects the backlit shadow profile of parts manually or automatically placed within its view.

Its InGage control software enables quality engineers and machine operators to quickly analyze parts. Inspection data is displayed, stored and sent for process control in any manufacturing or lab environment. A library of part inspections programs enables operators to quickly switch between inspection jobs. Many challenging features such as small radii, chamfers, arc blends and threads are inspected simultaneously. The company says the breadth and speed of inspection yields considerable time savings over traditional methods.

Over the past year, many improvements have been made to the Discovery and its InGage inspection software. A newly released Discovery model doubles the image size over the standard Discovery, while retaining high accuracy. A belt-driven attachment was developed which enables the Discovery to operate with bowl or other automated feeds. Coupling the belt drive with the Discovery’s air blowoffs enables automated inspection and sorting. Indexing was added to the Discovery’s motorized rotary attachment, enabling for mill-turn parts (such as parts with a hex) to be inspected at a series of discrete angles.

New developments to Six Sigma Concepts’ InGage software have increased its inspection capabilities. Geometric constructions and the corner tool have been updated, increasing the range of features they can recognize. Constructions, corner tool and radius tool have also added the ability to add or remove tangency references. Additionally, profile checks have been added to more tools, enabling increased detection of chips, burrs and nonconforming features.

Based on customer feedback, improvements have also been made to InGage’s interface. Program editing has been improved by the addition of undo, redo, copy, cut and paste functionality. A DXF loader has been created, adding the capability to create inspection programs from a part drawing file. Inspection tools can be automatically generated from a drawing file and parts can be programmed offline while the Discovery is in use. Data recording, communication and reporting have been enhanced, including saving multiple data formats, serial data output and a new report generator.