3D Measurement and Control, Made Easy

Terry Arden CEO

LMI A 3D Sensor Company

LMI Technologies is one of the top worldwide suppliers of 3D sensors We design, build, & service non-contact 3D sensors to enable optimization & automation Headquarters in Vancouver BC, Canada 100+ patents Over 60,000+ 3D sensors operational

Vancouver, CA Portland, US

Windsor, CA Detroit, US Atlanta, US

Dublin, EI Heerlen, NL

Gothenburg, SE Ratekau, DE

Shanghai, CN

GLOBAL PRESENCE
World Headquarters
Regional Operating Companies Local representatives

Some 3D Markets
Automotive Part Inspection Road Surface Quality

Wheel Alignment

Board Scanning Shape & Color

Level Pouring Control

Log Scanning

Is 3D Better?
Lets compare sources of error in a 2D measurement system vs. a 3D sensor A sensor is a precalibrated optical assembly ready to output in standard units

2D Measurement Systems
Broadly implemented PC-based or smart cameras Use well understood techniques (pattern recognition, edge detection, blob analysis) from a variety of off the shelf software libraries with sub-pixel precision But 2D systems have some issues.

2D Lighting
Lighting determines edge detection/measurement accuracy Ambient may affect edge detection results Lighting is not uniform across field of view and through depth of field. Requires compensation.

Edge location?

Field of view

3D Sensor Lighting
Laser light source eliminates ambient light using bandpass filters

Laser patterns (eg., lines) can deliver uniform power distribution

Laser line intensity and appearance is uniform

2D Part Movement
Needs fixturing along optical axis (Z) Or needs telecentric optics Or needs scale-invariant feature detection Optical axis (Z) movement changes pixel scale
Part Movement

3D Sensor Part Movement

3D sensors are factory calibrated throughout the entire measurement volume Targets on precision slides automatically calibrate sensors Parts can move anywhere within the sensor measurement volume

2D Component Stability
Any component can move due to Temperature or Vibration

will introduce errors!

3D Component Stability
All components rigidly mounted on a single spine assembly

Focal lengths are locked relative to emitter and imager planes Temperature compensation corrects for metal creep movement

SO WHY ISNT 3D COMMON?

3D Value Map
3D components
Cameras Lenses Lenses Lasers Lasers 3D Processing Calibration Calibration PC-based tools for post-processing Acquisition only Decision and control All-in-one package

Gocator

3D cameras
Cameras with builtin 3D processing

3D sensors
Pre-calibrated

3D smart sensors
Pre-calibrated Acquisition and measurement

Complex

Easy

Gocator Makes Setup Easy

Web enabled user interface in your language User interface delivers full potential of 3D measurement options No vision experience required!

Gocator Makes Measurement Easy

Built-in measurement tools with decision making Profile and whole part tools Set decision thresholds

Gocator Makes Control Easy

Flexible communication choices serial, analog, digital, Ethernet Standard PLC protocols Part tagging and tracking for delayed reject and sorting GenTL driver

Gocator Leverages 2D
Intensity images derived from laser light Fully calibrated, ready to measure Combine 2D surface with 3D height processing 3D is everything 2D offers but more!

Measurement Ready
Sensor

Sensors are pre-calibrated to measure out of the box for a selected measurement volume

Pre-calibrated measurement volume

Choices in measurement density and speed are:

Displacement Profile Snapshot

Displacement Sensors
Measures a single displacement value using a laser dot One dimensional in Z (Range) can measure position, height or thickness Very high speed (10-100kHz)

Profile Sensors
Measures a set of displacement values across the field of view using a laser line Two dimensional in X (FOV) and Z (Range) Synchronize to an encoder to build a 3D point cloud from a fast moving object

Snapshot Sensors
Measures shape with a rapid sequence of pattern projections no need for object movement

Three dimensional in X (HFOV), Y (VFOV) and Z (Range) Stereo processing for high accuracy

3D Made Easy With Gocator

All-In-One Smart Sensors

Easy to use, web-enabled suitable for setup by factory process engineers Solves a broad range of tasks including inspection, gauging, and error proofing Solves the hidden errors in 2D systems

Displacement

Snapshot

Profiler

LEARN ABOUT GOCATOR AT

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