Patent ID: 9486840
Filing Date: 2016-11-08
CPC Classification: B07C,G01N

Claim Text:
1. A high-speed, triangulation-based, 3-D method of inspecting manufactured parts and sorting the inspected parts, each part having a length, a width, a part axis and an outer peripheral surface which extends 360° around the part, the method comprising: receiving a supply of parts; consecutively transferring the parts so that the parts move along a path which extends from the supply of parts and through a circumference imaging station; supporting a plurality of angularly-spaced, triangulation-based, sensor heads at the imaging station each of the sensor heads being configured to generate focused lines of radiation and to sense corresponding reflected lines of radiation; delivering the focused lines onto a plurality of exterior side surfaces of the part during motion of the part relative to the focused lines to obtain corresponding arrays of reflected lines of radiation, the exterior side surfaces being angularly spaced about the axis of the part at the imaging station; the sensor heads simultaneously sensing their corresponding arrays of reflected lines to obtain corresponding sets of 2-D profile signals, each set of profile signals representing a 3-D view of one of the exterior side surfaces and the sets of 2-D profile signals representing a 360° panoramic composite 3-D view of the outer peripheral surface of the part; processing sets of 2-D profile signals of each part to identify parts having an unacceptable defect; directing parts identified as having an unacceptable defect to a defective part area; and directing parts not identified as having an unacceptable defect to an acceptable part area.