Detection of surface defects on reflective materials

October 6, 2023

Why would you inspect reflective surfaces for defects?

Detection of defects like dents, scratches, dirt, and bumps on raw or finished products is a crucial step of quality control. However, reflectivity of some materials requires special imagining techniques to make the inspection possible.

One of the metal production plants reached out to us with a request to develop an inspection system for detection of defects of various sizes on metal sheets:

  • dents
  • bumps
  • scratches
  • waviness
  • punch marks
  • dirt

How did we solve this challenge? Using deflectometry!

Why deflectometry? 

Deflectometry makes it possible to detect and quantify imperfections on reflective surfaces with a very high precision.

What is deflectometry?

Deflectometry involves observation of a known pattern, often a grid or a series of parallel lines, via the surface of the object being examined. If the surface is flat, the pattern will be reflected without distortion, but if it is curved or has imperfections, the reflected pattern will be distorted.

Source: www.doi.org/10.3929/ethz-a-006206898

The reflected pattern is captured by a camera and analyzed for distortions (3D defects like dents or waviness) and disturbances (2D defects like scratches or dirt), revealing possible artifacts on the surface.

Deflectometry and machine vision

In this solution, we paired deflectometry with machine vision to automatically detect even the smallest defects and minimize manual inspection efforts at the production line.

Would you like to integrate deflectometry and machine vision solutions into your application? Reach out to us by sending an email to info@apixa.com

 Want to learn more?
We are here to help and answer any question you might have.
We look forward to hearing from you!

get in touch