KR20240134703A - Multi-angle lighting device for inspection - Google Patents

Abstract

According to embodiments of the present invention, a multi-angle illumination device for inspection comprises a light source unit configured to include a plurality of linear lights for supplying light to a subject to be inspected so that the inspection device can clearly identify and capture an image of the subject to be inspected; an upper frame provided above the light source unit and having an imaging opening formed in the center; and a plurality of joint structures for fixedly supporting the upper frame and the light source unit or for fixedly supporting the linear lights one from another, and characterized in that an irradiation angle of the linear lights is changed depending on a structure in which the joint structures are coupled to the linear lights.

Description

{MULTI-ANGLE LIGHTING DEVICE FOR INSPECTION}

The present invention relates to an inspection lighting device, and more specifically, to an inspection multi-angle lighting device capable of adjusting the light irradiation angle so as to illuminate the surface of an inspection object from various angles without replacing the device.

In general, machine vision technology is a technology that grants machines the visual and judgment functions that humans have, and processes the functions that humans perceive and judge using hardware and software systems.

Using this machine vision technology, various inspections such as surface finish inspection of products, physical defect tracking, number of objects on a conveyor, inspection of textile products, color inspection, PCB (printed circuit board) inspection, photomasks, semiconductor manufacturing, presence/absence of defects, robot guidance, size and shape verification, inspection of missing parts, correct mounting, placement, completeness verification of microscopic parts, and reading of serial numbers can be automated using cameras, imaging boards, optical devices, and image processing software.

Recent machine vision technology is being widely used in the production processes of almost all industries, including the semiconductor industry, as well as aluminum, automobiles, mobile phones, logistics, pharmaceuticals/medical, food and beverage, consumer goods, wood, textiles, glass, iron, casting, and chemicals, as various industries are transitioning to automation, not only for simple measurement but also for processing and judgment of acquired images according to the user's purpose. Accordingly, the lighting device for surface inspection, which irradiates light onto the surface of the subject to be inspected, conducts many tests to determine the optimal light irradiation angle so that the surface condition of the subject to be inspected can be clearly detected, and then performs surface inspection.

Meanwhile, conventional lighting devices have the inconvenience of having to be replaced with a lighting device suitable for the surface inspection shape when surface inspection of a test object having a different shape is required, and there is also the problem of work efficiency decreasing as the process time increases.

In order to solve these problems, Korean Patent Publication No. 10-2011-0016043 discloses a surface inspection lighting device including a central body having a central hole for camera shooting and having a regular polygonal shape, a light source member connected to the central body and having a plurality of light-emitting elements inside for irradiating light onto the surface of the subject to be inspected, and a coupling means for connecting the central body and the light source member while allowing the light source member to rotate up and down so as to illuminate the surface of the subject to be inspected from various angles. However, there has been a limitation in that it cannot implement surface-type (or linear) lighting for dropping light in a vertical direction or side-emitting lighting for irradiating light in a horizontal direction.

Korean Patent Publication No. 10-2011-0016043 (February 17, 2011) United States Patent Publication No. 2023-0105145 (April 6, 2023)

The present invention has been made to solve the above-described problems, and an object of the present invention is to provide a multi-angle illumination device for inspection capable of adjusting the light irradiation angle so as to illuminate the surface of an object to be inspected from various angles without replacing the device.

The technical problems of the present invention are not limited to the technical problems mentioned above, and other technical problems not mentioned will be clearly understood by those skilled in the art to which the present invention belongs from the description below.

In order to solve these problems, according to an embodiment of the present invention, an inspection multi-angle lighting device is provided, which comprises: a light source unit configured to include a plurality of linear lights for supplying light to a subject to be inspected so that the subject can be clearly identified and imaged; an upper frame provided on an upper side of the light source unit, the upper frame having an imaging opening formed in the center; and a plurality of joint structures for fixedly supporting the upper frame and the light source unit, or for fixedly supporting the linear lights one from another, wherein an irradiation angle of the linear lights is changed depending on a structure in which the joint structures are coupled to the linear lights.

The upper frame comprises: a pair of base plates; a pair of fixed bridges which are fixedly coupled to each other between the pair of base plates to define the imaging opening; and the fixed bridges are configured such that a horizontal body coupled to the pair of base plates and a vertical body to which the inspection device is coupled are integrally formed to have an ‘L’ shape, and a first sliding hole is formed in the horizontal body to adjust a distance between the pair of base plates, and the pair of base plates are fixed by a first clamp which is fastened to the base plates through the first sliding hole.

Each of the above joint structures is characterized by comprising: a bracket bar having a sliding hole formed along the longitudinal direction; and a pair of second clamps that are connected to the linear lights through the sliding hole.

The linear lights include first to fourth linear lights, the joint structures include first to fourth joint structures, the first linear light is fixedly coupled to the base plate by the first joint structure, the second linear light is fixedly coupled to the first linear light by the second joint structure, the third linear light is fixedly coupled to the second linear light by the third joint structure, and the fourth linear light is fixedly coupled to the third linear light by the fourth joint structure.

According to embodiments of the present invention, an inspection multi-angle lighting device capable of adjusting the light irradiation angle so as to illuminate the surface of a test object from various angles without replacing the device is provided.

The effects according to the technical idea of the present disclosure are not limited to the effects mentioned above, and other effects not mentioned will be clearly understood by those skilled in the art from the description below.

FIG. 1 is a drawing exemplarily showing the state of use of a multi-angle illumination device for inspection according to some embodiments of the present invention.
FIG. 2 is a perspective view of a multi-angle illumination device for inspection according to some embodiments of the present invention.
FIG. 3 is a drawing for explaining an upper frame of a multi-angle illumination device for inspection according to some embodiments of the present invention.
FIG. 4 is a schematic drawing of a side view of a multi-angle illumination device for inspection according to some embodiments of the present invention.
FIGS. 5 to 10 are drawings for explaining various usage examples of a multi-angle illumination device for inspection according to some embodiments of the present invention.

Hereinafter, preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. The advantages and features of the present invention and the methods for achieving them will become apparent with reference to the embodiments described in detail below together with the accompanying drawings. However, the present invention is not limited to the embodiments disclosed below, but may be implemented in various different forms, and these embodiments are provided only to make the disclosure of the present invention complete and to fully inform those skilled in the art of the scope of the invention, and the present invention is defined only by the scope of the claims. Like reference numerals refer to like elements throughout the specification.

Unless otherwise defined, all terms (including technical and scientific terms) used in this specification may be used with a meaning that can be commonly understood by a person of ordinary skill in the art to which the present invention belongs. In addition, terms defined in commonly used dictionaries shall not be ideally or excessively interpreted unless explicitly and specifically defined.

Also, in this specification, the singular may also include the plural unless specifically stated otherwise in the phrase. As used in the specification, the terms "comprises" and/or "comprising" do not exclude the presence or addition of one or more other components, steps, operations and/or elements mentioned.

The term ‘machine vision’ described later in this specification refers to a system configured to obtain a desired result by processing an image acquired using a camera, and may mean a technology that automates various tasks previously handled by humans by giving vision to machines and having them handle them.

In general, a machine vision system can be composed of a PC equipped with a frame grabber, a camera, a lens, lighting, and a lighting controller. Under the control of the lighting controller, a predetermined amount of light is irradiated from the lighting to the inspection target, and the light reflected by the inspection target can be acquired as an image through the lens of the camera. The acquired image is transmitted to a computer as an analog image signal, and can be digitized into a defined bit per sample through a frame grabber, etc. mounted therein, and converted into a signal that can be processed by the PC.

Meanwhile, an inspection lighting device that irradiates light to inspect the appearance of a product using an imaging device composed of a camera such as a CCD may have various structures depending on its purpose and usage environment, and the main purpose of the inspection multi-angle lighting device of the present invention is to actively respond to various inspection environments as a single lighting device.

FIG. 1 is a drawing exemplarily showing a state of use of an inspection polygonal illumination device according to some embodiments of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a perspective view of an inspection polygonal illumination device according to some embodiments of the present invention, FIG. 3 is a drawing for explaining an upper frame of an inspection polygonal illumination device according to some embodiments of the present invention, FIG. 4 is a drawing schematically showing a side view of an inspection polygonal illumination device according to some embodiments of the present invention, and FIGS. 5 to 10 are drawings for explaining various usage examples of an inspection polygonal illumination device according to some embodiments of the present invention.

Referring to FIGS. 1 to 10, a multi-angle illumination device (1) for inspection according to embodiments of the present invention can be used together with a subject transport unit (2) for sequentially inspecting a subject (3) and an inspection device (4) for capturing an image of a subject (3) illuminated by the multi-angle illumination device (1) for inspection to construct a machine vision inspection system.

Additionally, although not shown, these machine vision inspection systems may be additionally equipped with a lighting controller that can perform various roles, such as turning individual lights on and off, controlling the brightness of the lights, changing the characteristics of the lights (e.g., color temperature, etc.), controlling the image capture timing for organic operation with the vision camera, or intelligently driving various modes (e.g., constant-light mode, strobing mode, or overdrive mode, etc.).

The inspection multi-angle lighting device (1) can be configured to include an upper frame (100), a light source unit (200), and a plurality of joint structures (300).

The light source unit (200) may be configured to include a plurality of linear lights to supply light to the subject to be examined so that the examination device (4) can clearly identify and capture the subject to be examined (3).

In the embodiment of the present invention, a case in which the light source unit (200) is configured as a pair of four linear light sets (201, 202, 203, 204; i.e., a total of eight linear lights) that are configured to be symmetrical to each other has been described as a representative example, but the light source unit (200) is not limited thereto and of course may be configured as two, three or five linear light sets.

Meanwhile, the individual linear lights may all be configured to have the same optical characteristics (e.g., all composed of white LEDs), or they may be combined to have different optical characteristics (e.g., the first linear light is composed of white LEDs, the second linear light is composed of red LEDs, the third linear light is composed of green LEDs, and the fourth linear light is composed of blue LEDs).

The upper frame (100) may be provided on the upper side of the light source unit (200), and may be configured so that an imaging opening (100H) is formed in the central region.

The upper frame (100) includes a pair of base plates (110) and a pair of fixed bridges (120) that are fixedly coupled to each other between the pair of base plates (110) to define an imaging aperture (100H).

The fixed bridge (120) can be configured to have an ‘L’ shape by integrally forming a horizontal body that is combined with a pair of base plates (110) and a vertical body to which an inspection device is combined.

A first sliding hole (121) is formed in the horizontal body of the fixed bridge (120) to adjust the distance between a pair of base plates (110), and the pair of base plates (110) are fixed by a first clamp (130) that is fastened to the base plates through the first sliding hole, so that the distance between the pair of base plates (110) (i.e., the distance between lights) can be appropriately adjusted according to the inspection environment.

A joining groove (123) may be formed in the vertical body of the fixed bridge (120), and depending on the inspection environment, the joining groove (123) may be used for fixing the inspection device (4), or for fixing the lighting device (1) to the ceiling of the inspection space or to another device within the system.

Since the upper frame (100) has such a structure, it is possible to perform the function of adjusting the overall size of the lighting device, adjusting the distance between lights, or attaching an inspection device to the upper part, while securing sufficient rigidity of the lighting device, thereby preventing lighting imbalance that may occur due to the lights being twisted with each other.

A plurality of joint structures (300) may perform a role of fixedly supporting the upper frame (100) and the light source unit (200), or fixedly supporting the linear lights (200) one from another. In addition, the illumination characteristics of the linear lights (i.e., the illumination angle and/or the size of the illumination area, etc.) may be changed depending on the structure in which the joint structures (300) are coupled to the linear lights (200) (i.e., the distance between adjacent lights with the joint structures between them or the fixed angle of each light).

Specifically, each of the joint structures (300) may be composed of a bracket bar (310) having a sliding hole formed along the longitudinal direction and a pair of second clamps (320) that are connected to the linear lights through the sliding hole.

The second clamp (320) can be inserted and fixed into a clamp hole (203) formed on the side of the linear light (200) or a clamp hole (113) formed on the side of the base plate (110) by penetrating the bracket bar (310), thereby fixing the joint structure (300).

In this way, multiple linear lights are connected so that individual investigation angles and intervals between them can be adjusted, and each linear light is configured so that it can be individually controlled, so that the inspection multi-angle lighting device (1) of the present invention can illuminate the surface of an inspection object from various angles without having to replace a separate lighting device in order to respond to various inspection environments.

In addition, the inspection multi-angle lighting device (1) can be used in various modified forms, such as maximizing the uniformity of illumination to the subject of inspection by operating the first to fourth linear lights (201, 202, 203, 204) to have different irradiation angles as illustrated in FIG. 5, or performing the function as vertical drop lighting by operating only the first linear light (201) having a vertical irradiation angle as illustrated in FIG. 6, or performing the function as vertical drop lighting by operating only the fourth linear light (204) having a horizontal irradiation angle as illustrated in FIG. 7, or performing the function as surface lighting in which all of the first to fourth linear lights (201, 202, 203, 204) have vertical irradiation angles by changing the fastening position of the second clamp (320) as illustrated in FIG. 7, or maximizing the storability and transportability by sliding a pair of base plates (110) so as to be in close contact with each other as illustrated in FIGS. 9 and 10.

Those skilled in the art related to the present embodiment will understand that the above-described description can be implemented in a modified form without departing from the essential characteristics thereof. Therefore, the disclosed methods should be considered from an illustrative rather than a restrictive perspective. The scope of the present invention is indicated by the claims, not the above description, and all differences within the scope equivalent thereto should be interpreted as being included in the present invention.

Claims (4)

In a multi-angle lighting device for inspection,
A light source unit configured to include a plurality of linear lights for supplying light to a subject to be examined so that the examination device can clearly identify and capture an image of the subject;
An upper frame provided on the upper side of the light source unit, wherein an imaging opening is formed in the central portion;
It is configured to include a plurality of joint structures for fixedly supporting the upper frame and the light source unit, or for fixedly supporting the linear lights one from another;
An inspection multi-angle lighting device characterized in that the irradiation angles of the linear lights are changed according to the structure in which the joint structures are connected to the linear lights.
In the first paragraph,
The above upper frame,
A pair of base plates;
A pair of fixed bridges defining the imaging aperture by fixedly connecting the pair of base plates;
The above fixed bridge is configured to have an 'L' shape by integrally forming a horizontal body that is combined with the pair of base plates and a vertical body to which the inspection device is combined.
An inspection multi-angle lighting device, characterized in that a first sliding hole for adjusting a distance between the pair of base plates is formed in the horizontal body, and the pair of base plates are fixed by a first clamp that is fastened to the base plates through the first sliding hole.
In the second paragraph,
Each of the above joint structures,
A bracket bar having a sliding hole formed along the length direction; and
An inspection multi-angle lighting device characterized by comprising a pair of second clamps that are connected to the linear lights through the sliding holes.
In the third paragraph,
The above linear lights include first to fourth linear lights,
The above joint structures include first to fourth joint structures,
The above first linear light is fixedly connected to the base plate by the above first joint structure,
The second linear light is fixedly connected to the first linear light by the second joint structure,
The third linear light is fixedly connected to the second linear light by the third joint structure,
An inspection multi-angle lighting device, characterized in that the fourth linear light is fixedly connected to the third linear light by the fourth joint structure.