Patent ID: 7364043
Filing Date: 2008-04-29
Classification: B07C,G01N,Y10S

Abstract:
1. An inspection system for inspecting and sorting a plurality of fasteners, each fastener having a head and a shank, said system comprising: a rotary table having an outer periphery, an inner periphery, and a plurality of radial slots extending from the outer periphery to the inner periphery, each radial slot being configured to receive a fastener with the head of the fastener facing upward and to shank suspending in the radial slot; means for rotating the rotary table; a loading mechanism for sequentially delivering the fasteners to the radial slots; an anti-jam mechanism for preventing jamming as the fasteners are being delivered to the radial slots; at least one vision inspection camera operable to capture an image of each fastener after the fastener has been delivered to a radial slot; an image analyzer operatively connected to said at least one vision inspection camera for analyzing the captured image and to determine whether the fastener shown in the captured image is defective; and a sorting mechanism for removing any defective fastener from the rotary table when the defective fastener has been identified by the image analyzer, wherein the loading mechanism, the anti-jam mechanism and the sorting mechanism are positioned along the outer periphery of the rotary table, wherein the anti-jam mechanism comprises an anti-jam arm having a curved edge positioned adjacent to the outer periphery of the rotary table, and the anti-jam arm being spring-loaded so that the curved edge can retract away from the outer periphery of the rotary table when the fasteners are jammed.