ifm vision inspection sensor

First off great form with a lot of useful info and people.
My question is if any one has used a ifm model 02D224 Vision sensor.I am looking to use this to detect crooked or missing bottle caps.But do not want to spend the money if it will not work (as always the rep says it will work?)any feed back would be helpful.

We've used the dualis with some success, but we were also given a trial unit to test out our application. Most of the sensor reps are hungry enough to do that these days. The software is free, and is fairly powerful/ intuitive.

I've used their dualis barcode scanner with success as well, but this was only after the rep gave me a test unit and a guarentee we could return it up to 1 year for a full refund.

Talk to your rep, should be willing to help you out.

I use cognex for parts recognition and detection.
I am working on my 3rd unit and 4 more are about to be ordered. some models are a bit costly due to what my application is.

regards,
james

Yes, IFM Dualis Vision is a good product.

We have integrated several in the past few months.

Our IFM rep allowed brought one in prior to each application to "bench-test" or validate our intended use prior to each order.

When ordering your OD Dualis sensors, also buy the I/O cable from IFM, it is a 8-pin Micro connector, but the colors differ from a typical Lumberg or Turck cable. You will want to use the IFM cable with the IFM sensor. You will need one cable for each vision sensor to be installed permanently with the sensor.

You will also need one "programming" cable to go on-line to set up each sensors. It is a Ethernet cable with an RJ-45 for your laptop end, and a micro connector for the sensor end. The one we have is about 10 meters, if your sensor is mounted far away from where you have access.

The sensor has built-in IR illumination, that was sufficient for the 3 or 4 applications that we have implemented to date. Our applications we very high contrast between pass/fail.

I have used this camera in several (5) different applications. It uses either builtin IR lighting or a backlight if your application requires. The camera is designed to function as a contour detection device where it will compare your saved "model" and compare it to your production pieces by examining specific contours of the parts. The sensitivity of these contours can be adjusted by varying your contour width in the setup.
I had one application which successfully detected whether a tube had a sleeve inside of it and it never missed a part in over 4 million pieces, but it was a good application for the camera. In general, you need to setup a bench test which closely as possible imitates what your application will be and then you will be able to determine if lighting, etc will give you a good contrast between what your looking at and the background. I can help with any programming or setup issues if you need also.

Thank you for the input in regards to my question.

We've used them with good results. Just make sure you have good fixturing so that every part is in exactly the same place and has the same orientation. Also, as has been said, the Dualis works best if you have good contrast.

Having said that, they've worked well. We use them to check part types at machine entry, and to check for correct o-ring placement on a tube. They're great if you can image an "area" and then compare what you see to the stored image of what you should see. You can set boundaries that the image has to meet, and set multiple requirements, very easily.

Not a full-fledged vision system. If you just need to check shapes or shadows, though, they work very well. And, they're SMALL, you can store and then select from multiple images to match different parts, and they integrate easily with a PLC since they're just digital IO (unless they have new offerings in the last couple years since I bought one.)