Manufacturing

Perceptron HELIX 200HDR scanning sensor

Auto sales finally got back above pre-recession levels in 2014 with August sales reaching a seven-year high. After six long years, sales levels have matched 2007’s pace. More importantly, several research groups expect 2015 continue to grow. Today’s Motor Vehicles allows marketers direct access to this healthy industry with continued growth.

Plymouth, Michigan – Perceptron has extended the performance range of its HELIX smart scanning sensor with the addition of a high-power version, offering higher dynamic range. The new HELIX 200HDR sensor offers an adjustable power range up to the maximum permitted for a Class 3R laser. The higher power allows more complex measurement applications, including inspection of highly reflective metallic surfaces such as machined aluminum castings. The HELIX 200HDR produces a thinner laser line and offers a higher measurement resolution suited for the inspection of complex aerospace machined parts and assemblies.
 
The laser line quantity, density, length, and orientation characteristics are all user-programmable. This eliminates the need to physically move the laser unit during scanning, which helps ensure both accurate and repeatable measurement results. All motion is contained within the HELIX smart-scanning sensor, improving the quality and accuracy of scanned data and allowing the capture of multiple part features in one sensor position. 
 
HELIX contains an imbedded accelerometer to determine real-time sensor orientation and has been developed specifically for advanced robotic inspection applications where the robot moves the sensor to discrete measuring positions from which the HELIX sensor can collect all required measuring data. 
 
The scanned dataset from HELIX is streamed real-time into a shop-hardened control system which uses Perceptron proprietary VECTOR software which allows automatic part feature geometry extraction from the generated point cloud for dimensional analysis. 
 
Source: Perceptron