Foreign substance inspection method and foreign substance inspection apparatus

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11774378-B2
Application number	US-202017022462-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Sep 16, 2020
Priority date	Dec 24, 2019
Publication date	Oct 3, 2023
Grant date	Oct 3, 2023

Abstract

Provided is a foreign substance inspection method for inspecting presence or absence of a foreign substance embedded in a tubular resin molded product. A dome is prepared. The foreign substance inspection method includes: a first measurement step of measuring a dimension of a first projection image of the embedded foreign substance; a second measurement step of measuring a dimension of a second projection image of the embedded foreign substance: and a calculation step of calculating the dimension of the embedded foreign substance based on a proportional relationship between the dimension of each of the projection images to a distance from a corresponding one of the light sources to the each of the projection images and the dimension of the embedded foreign substance to a distance from the corresponding one of the light sources to the embedded foreign substance.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A foreign substance inspection method for inspecting presence or absence of a foreign substance embedded in a tubular resin molded product and having a dimension larger than a predetermined threshold, the foreign substance inspection method comprising:
preparing, as the resin molded product, a resin molded product made of nylon that does not include color pigment;
a first measurement step of emitting light to a first peripheral surface of the resin molded product from a first light source and measuring a dimension of a first projection image, of an embedded foreign substance, that is projected on a second peripheral surface, the first light source being placed on either one of inside and outside of the resin molded product in a tubular radial direction;
a second measurement step of emitting light to the second peripheral surface of the resin molded product from a second light source and measuring a dimension of a second projection image, of the embedded foreign substance, that is projected on the first peripheral surface, the second light source being placed on the other one of the inside and the outside of the resin molded product in the tubular radial direction; and
a calculation step of calculating a dimension of the embedded foreign substance based on a proportional relationship between a dimension of each of the projection images projected by the light sources to a distance from a corresponding one of the light sources to the each of the projection images and a dimension of the embedded foreign substance to a distance from the corresponding one of the light sources to the embedded foreign substance.

2. The foreign substance inspection method according to claim 1 , wherein the calculation step includes:
a first calculation step of calculating a distance from either one of the first and second light sources to the embedded foreign substance by use of an embedment depth of the embedded foreign substance, the embedment depth being calculated based on a proportional relationship between the dimension of the first projection image to a distance from the first light source to the first projection image and the dimension of the embedded foreign substance to a distance from the first light source to the embedded foreign substance, and a proportional relationship between the dimension of the second projection image to a distance from the second light source to the second projection image and the dimension of the embedded foreign substance to a distance from the second light source to the embedded foreign substance; and
a second calculation step of calculating the dimension of the embedded foreign substance based on a proportional relationship between the dimension of a projection image projected by the one of the first and second light sources to the distance from the one of the first and second light sources to the projection image and the dimension of the embedded foreign substance to the distance from the one of the first and second light sources to the embedded foreign substance.

3. The foreign substance inspection method according to claim 1 , wherein, in the first and second measurement steps, images of the first and second projection images are captured by respective cameras, and respective dimensions of the first and second projection images are measured based on the images thus captured.

4. A foreign substance inspection apparatus used for the foreign substance inspection method according to claim 1 , the foreign substance inspection apparatus comprising:
an inner light source placed inside the resin molded product in the tubular radial direction such that the inner light source is movable in a tubular axial direction;
an outer light source placed outside the resin molded product in the tubular radial direction such that the outer light source is movable in the tubular axial direction;
a support base configured to support the resin molded product such that the resin molded product is rotatable in a circumferential direction;
a camera placed at least inside the resin molded product in the tubular radial direction such that the camera is movable in the tubular axial direction, the camera being configured to take an image of an inner peripheral surface of the resin molded product;
a displaying unit configured to display the image captured by the camera on a screen; and
a measuring unit configured to measure a dimension of a projection image of the embedded foreign substance when an inspector specifies, on the screen, a border of the projection image, of the embedded foreign substance, that is displayed on the displaying unit.

5. The foreign substance inspection apparatus according to claim 4 , further comprising a camera placed outside the resin molded product in the tubular radial direction such that the camera is movable in the tubular axial direction, the camera being configured to capture an image of an outer peripheral surface of the resin molded product.

Assignees

• Toyota Motor Co Ltd

Inventors

• Kimura Miki
• Asada tatsuyuki
• Koike Yoshiki

Classifications

• G01N23/18 Primary

  Investigating the presence of flaws defects or foreign matter · CPC title

• B29C45/768

  Detecting defective moulding conditions (B29C45/84 takes precedence) · CPC title

• G01N21/94

  Investigating contamination, e.g. dust (G01N21/85 takes precedence) · CPC title

• G01N21/952

  Inspecting the exterior surface of cylindrical bodies or wires (G01N21/956 takes precedence) · CPC title

• G01N23/04

  and forming images of the material · CPC title