The Power of Robotic Vision and Advanced Technology in ARV Solution
Conformal coating is a protective layer that conforms to the surface of a printed circuit board (PCB), creating a long-lasting barrier against environmental damage. The use of conformal coatings is becoming more important across various industries as it protects devices and components against threats like dust, fungus, corrosion, contamination, salt spray, and moisture. Any hazards to the PCB may result in failure or contamination, and coating problems can jeopardize its reliability. Initially, conformal coatings were used for military and aerospace applications, but now are widely applied to transportation electronics, consumer electronics, medical devices, and more. As a result, inspection is critical to the effective application of conformal coating to PCB. Traditional manual inspections and conventional AOIs for conformal coating and final assembly inspections have long faced challenges such as inefficiencies, human errors, and limited flexibility. To overcome these issues, ViTrox has introduced Advanced Robotic Vision (ARV) Solution, V9i in December 2020.
The Smart and Modular Robotic Design of ARV System
Our Advanced Robotic Vision (ARV) Solution designed for flexible inspection that aims to automate manual inspection tasks, attributed to the flexible hardware, advanced software architecture, and algorithm-driven programming. ARV series includes two key solutions—Conformal Coating Inspection (CI) and Final Inspection (FI).
With the seamless integration of a 6-axis collaborative robotic arm, ARV enables users to perform angle inspection with ease, offering a significant advantage over conventional AOI CC systems. For instance, the robotic arm enables the inspection at an adjustable angle up to 90°. The rotational robotic COBOT head of the ARV provides the ability to tilt the vision system for precise laser projections, even on the sides of components. Additionally, the innovative technologies of our ARV are built around a patented all-in-one lighting design, which integrates motorized vari-angle UV and RGBW lighting for both final inspection and conformal coating inspections.
Furthermore, the ARV system's compact and space saving design sets it apart from CI AOI systems. Our ARV system can be conveniently docked beside the conveyor without extending the production line length. Hence, our ARV is designed for versatility, making it suitable for any production environment.
The reason for designing ARV systems is to simplify program development for customers and address the challenges of modern industrial production. The ARV compact, modular, and lightweight design allow it to adapt to a variety of complex and changing industrial production situations. This flexibility provides customers with a faster and more reliable inspection solution by increasing production productivity and quality as compared to the current manual inspection method. Furthermore, the flexibility of docking the ARV system beside an inline conveyor saves production floor space by eliminating the need to relay out the production line, making adoption easier.
Reliable and Advance ARV Solutions
For conformal coating inspection, ViTrox provides Advanced Robotic Vision (ARV) that performs a 100% coating thickness measurement before the printed circuit board enters the curing process. Our ARV integrates motorized confocal displacement sensor (the conformal coating thickness measurement sensor), allowing it to measure coating thickness across ranges within 25μm to 500μm, with accuracy and repeatability lower than 5μm, without sacrificing any top clearance of the board. It is important to have an ARV to check the coating thicknesses because if it is too thick, it will cause disproportionate stress on components and solder joints, while if it is too thin, it will result in improper coverage.
Besides, our ARV offers uncompromised inspection coverage. Equipped with Advanced CAD-less Smart Learning Programming, it combines machine learning and rule-based algorithms. This capability allows the ARV system to detect a wide range of conformal coating defects and inspect screws, cosmetics, connectors, and labels without the need of CAD data. With a multifocal vision range of 5mm to 200mm and image clarity reaching 14µm/px, ARV ensures accurate and reliable defect detection. In a relatively complex Printed Circuit Board Assembly (PCBA), ARV can perform inspections up to 3 times faster than manual inspection. Hence, its programming capability allows significant time savings by learning the golden board sample, requiring only focus on fine-tuning or additional measurements.
The intuitive graphical user interface provides a new user experience, enabling easy program creation with minimal effort. The simple and comprehensive GUI allows the user to set up the program with ease through a touchscreen interface—making ARV highly user-friendly, even for those with no programming experience.
With the presence of a robotic arm (Cobot), ARV is able to cover full area and variable angle inspection. Not only allows users to set side angle inspection but also provide full board coverage inspection including coating thickness and board size up to 510 mm x 510 mm.
Efficient Robotic Inspection for Conformal Coating and Final Assembly
ViTrox’s Advanced Robotic Vision (ARV) Solution is more than just a tool for inspecting conformal coatings—it also functions as a final inspection solution. Final Inspection is the most critical in the assembly process, as it provides the last chance to check and resolve any issues on the products (either printed circuit board assemblies (PCBAs) or box build products meet specific standards and specifications before shipping.
We offer a reliable final inspection system tailored to diverse industries and applications. Our ARV empowers users to conduct comprehensive inspections such as cosmetic and assembly quality checks. ARV serves various industries, including automotive, industrial assemblies, telecommunications, and more, replacing manual inspection processes. With the Laser Profiler Technology, ARV is able to extract the profile and perform accurate, repeatable height measurement, ensuring consistent and reliable results.
With the ability to manage both conformal coating and final assembly inspections, we offer a cost-effective way for users to streamline two inspection processes into one solution. Our ARV is able to support high-speed 2-in-1 inspection functioning, performing both conformal coating and final product inspections seamlessly. For coating inspection, the ARV detects issues such as keep-out zone violations, insufficient or missing coating, foreign objects on the coating, coating bubble, orange peel, excess coating, and coating scratches. In final inspection, it covers aspects like absence or presence, polarity, dent or damage, foreign or extra objects, misalignment or gaps, OCR, barcode, label, glue, and pin Inspection. Our ARV can also be customized to improve inspection coverage and efficiency, providing even greater value to customers' operations. As a result, to support this dual capability, ARV equipped with the Ultraviolet-Red-Green-Blue (UVRGB) lighting module, an cutting-edge technology that enables effective inspection of both conformal coating inspection and final inspection.
Our ARV has the flexibility to offer better coverage on full PCB surface inspection or box build products. The system allows the user to perform top inspection and also side angle inspection on other components, such as the USB port connector in case there is any mishandling causing the defect. Equipped with a rotator, ARV enables 5-sided inspections of complete or in-process box build assemblies, expanding the inspection coverage beyond the reach of the robotic arm. This ensures greater precision and higher product quality while addressing the limitations of traditional inspection methods.
Furthermore, ARV Solution is equipped with a SMEMA connector, allowing it to connect to a variety of conveyors on the market. This enables smooth integration into existing or new manufacturing lines, and the system can be utilized both in-line and offline. Besides, ARV defect review station (VVTS) enables users to compare good and bad image samples side by side in order to verify the inspection calls from the system. All the inspection results can be stored in the SPC server for traceability purposes. The ARV also reads all the common barcodes and captures board images for product traceability. For customers, particular in the automotive industry, inspection data is crucial. Every board inspected by the ARV will be recorded and stored in ViTrox Database Statistical Process Control (VDSPC) 2.0 for future review. This ensures that users can easily trace back the inspection data through barcode scanning for full traceability.
ARV Solutions Seek To Meet Customer Needs
In a nutshell, our Advanced Robotic Vision (ARV) Solution allows users to inspect the conformal coating across the entire board and conduct final assembly inspections in the backend processes, helping to minimize defects before shipment. It offers flexible automated inspection using robotic guidance to detect defects and multiple motorized angle lighting, ideal for complex assemblies. The advanced features and technologies of ARV, along with the additional configuration options, enable comprehensive top and bottom inspections of the full board.
The Conformal Coating and Final Inspection processes in ARV will significantly enhance the reliability and consistency of data validation, while also optimizing manufacturing efficiency by reducing operational and labor costs and minimizing human involvement in data justification. The integration of robotic technology with the ARV Solution is setting new standards in robotic inspection for the future of smart manufacturing.
Why Choose ViTrox’s Advanced Robotic Vision (ARV) Solution?
- 100% coating thickness measurement during production
- Final assembly visual inspection
- Uncompromised inspection coverage - mimic human inspection angle
- Optional combination of conformal coating & final inspection in a common system
- Flexible inspection platform - workbench or conveyor
- Height measurement option
- Compact in size
- Zero experienced programmer is required
- Minimum maintenance
