Automatic Inspection System for Surface Defect of Precision Steel Ball

Abstract

Precision steel ball is one of the most critical components for rolling transmission. As precision ball affects the performance of precision transmission system, fully inspection of these balls is an urgent need for the industry. This paper is to develop a real-time inspection system for surface defects of precision steel ball with fast and robust method and mechanism. The developed system consists of an optical measurement module as well as a mechanism module for full surface inspecting of the steel ball. The minimum defect and area can be detected by the developed system are 0.1mm and 0.01 mm2 respectively. The developed system has been testified against the designed specifications at speed higher than 3pc/sec and less than 0.5% missing rate. It verified the resolution, accuracy and robustness of the developed system which is capable for final defect inspection of steel balls for grade 100 bearing.