Application of Hybrid Vision Method for the Hot Aluminium Surface Inspection

Abstract

The paper presents the possibilities of a hybrid vision method based on simultaneous analysis of infrared and vision images for surface inspection of hot aluminium in a manufacturing process. The system consists of a NIR/SWIR camera and a high resolution visual camera, and a computer based image analysis system. The simultaneous analysis of infrared and vision images will enable surface inspection for detecting defects in temperature range from 200°C to 600°C. Thermal images present temperature distribution on the surface, and contain information about the manufacturing process. The analysis of thermograms enables to find areas of temperature irregularity caused by increased friction loads, as well as areas of inhomogeneous emissivity caused by surface defects. Furthermore, information captured by the vision camera is used to detect surface defects. The software developed enables the overlaying of images. The proposed simultaneous thermovision and vision imaging can be applied in industry for in-line monitoring of aluminium extrusion processes.