APPARATUS FOR VISUALLY INSPECTING ARTICLE, ITS INSPECTION METHOD, AND APPARATUS FOR CONTINUOUSLY SELECTING NON-CONFORMING ARTICLE

摘要

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a visual inspection apparatus and its inspection method for simultaneously imaging a plurality of surfaces in an article consisting of polyhedrons by a single imaging machine for accurate and high-speed inspection, and to provide an apparatus for continuously selecting non-conforming articles where the inspection apparatus is applied.;SOLUTION: The upper surface of articles (1, 21) to be inspected is illuminated by a first lighting apparatus. The left/right sides are illuminated by a second lighting apparatus (14) for illuminating from the rear side via a half mirror (13). The reflection light image of each surface is imaged by a CCD camera (11). The imaged data are converted to a shaded image by a shading processing section (16a) at an image processing section (16), and then the shaded image is binarized to obtain a black-and-white image. The imaged screen is divided into multiple regions by a control section (17), and each area in at least one of the black-and-white images that are processed by a binarization processing section in respective division regions (R1-Rn) is calculated by a calculation section (17a). The calculation result is compared with reference values α1-αn being preset for each region for judging whether it is conforming or non-conforming, thus determining an article that is judged to be non-conforming at least at one division region to be non-conforming.;COPYRIGHT: (C)2004,JPO