SICK/IVP presents the world's first 3-D smart camera

The freely programmable IVC 3D Industrial Vision Camera from SICK / IVP is suitable for solving the most varied of tasks in which three-dimensional object inspection or the checking of features are involved. Applications that in the past necessitated complicated camera and illumination technology can now easily be solved with the world's first 3-D smart camera.

The enormous application experience of SICK/IVP, particularly in industrial image processing, has been consistently exploited in the development of the world's first 3-D smart camera.

Integrated laser optics offer many advantages

Unlike conventional image processing systems, the 3-D smart camera is capable of detecting geometrical features regardless of fluctuations in contrast. The system operates with a line of laser light, whose reflection is evaluated using a triangulation process. The laser optics are integrated directly in the housing in order to avoid, as far as possible, the often difficult selection of the appropriate illumination. This results in the further advantage of a stable and uniform geometry between the illumination and the camera throughout the entire inspection process.

Precise detection even at varying speeds

Up to 5,000 profile sections per second are combined to create a real 3-D image. This is also possible even if the test objects pass the measurement window at different rates. This is no problem for the new IVC 3D because an incremental encoder can be connected via an analogue input to measure speed and position. Thus objects can be detected with a high level of precision even at differing speeds.

Well-known image processing expertise can be exploited

The IVC 3D is available with measurement areas of 150 x 50 mm (with a resolution of 0.1 mm) or 600 x 200 mm (with 0.5 mm resolution). The height information is "encoded" as grey values during evaluation of the image. This allows users who want to implement their specific solutions with the 3-D smart camera to use the software tools familiar from the IVC 2D.

Versatile use

Freely programmable and suitable for a wide range of uses, the IVC 3D is the ideal solution for numerous inspection tasks in the food and packaging industry, in production processes, or robot and handling systems, among others. For users with expertise in image processing, the 3-D smart camera is a flexible and (thanks to the comprehensive library of image processing functions) individually programmable alternative to conventional 3-D image processing systems – as well as being extremely economical.