At SCHWEISSEN & SCHNEIDEN in Essen, Schweisstec/Blechexpo in Stuttgart, and FABTECH in Chicago, the VITRONIC VIROwsi seam inspection system sparked enormous interest in trade fair visitors. In particular, the analysis and statistics software became real public magnets. This system effectively contributes to identifying variations in quality in the welding process, improving product quality, and minimizing waste and expensive reworking of parts.

VITRONIC's trade fair managers were quite pleased with the strong international show of interest. "Many respected industrial companies submitted concrete requests for VIROwsi and the new analysis software, and this shows that automated weld seam inspection is a topic of interest not only for automobile manufacturers and automotive parts suppliers, but also other manufacturing companies," explains Markus Maurer, Head of Industrial Sales at VITRONIC.

A wide range of applications

Hundreds of VIROwsi systems are currently being used successfully worldwide, for example in the automated seam inspection of body parts and axle components. Generally speaking, automated optical seam inspection is suitable for any company that uses automated welding or brazing processes and that produces safety-related components of the highest quality for brazed and welded seams, such as companies in the automotive and aerospace industries. Thanks to the high scanning speed, the inspection process with VIROwsi is considerably faster than the welding process. In most cases, only one inspection station is required for several welding stations.

Analysis software as the foundation of process optimization

The analysis and statistics software, which is included in the scope of delivery, provides a transparent overview of all parts. VIROwsi detects the size and position of all relevant defects.

Furthermore, the statistical distribution of OK and NOK parts and the defect types are displayed. It is possible to view frequent defects by part, in relation to the seam, or by defect type. It is also possible to analyze the temporal distribution of occurrences.

All information is automatically logged and saved in a database for subsequent tracking and evaluation. These features also demonstrate how process optimization improves product quality, for example when comparing defect statistics from before and after optimization. The product quality is always completely documented and can be visualized for each part using 3D images.

Source: VITRONIC Dr.-Ing. Stein Bildverarbeitungssysteme GmbH