Construction of an automation system for the inspection and packing processes of a screw/bolt production line

In this paper, a packing automation system was constructed and a prototype was manufactured to test its performance for the inspection and packing process automation of a screw/bolt production line. The packing automation system is composed of an automated inspection system and an automated packing system. An inspection system using machine vision inspection and the slant method was proposed, developed and applied. The system was also developed and applied as the MICOM system in the PLC system to improve inspection errors due to the delays in the inspection process. The feeder to supply work to the inspection device was proposed, developed and applied as a slide feeder by applying a vertical transfer mechanism. The slide method was designed to minimize friction and thus improve upon the disadvantages of the existing bowl feeder. An automated packing system based on a one-station method for two-sided vinyl automatic packing was proposed, developed and applied. The one-station method maximizes the speed of the packing processes, such as automatic supply, cutting, spreading, charging, closing and sealing, that occur over a short distance. Performance of the system was evaluated by producing a prototype and setting up a packing automation system. The performance test was validated based on the inspection handling speed, transfer speed of the slide feeder, packing speed of the automatic packing system and charging accuracy, verifying the applicability and practicality of the automated system for the screw/bolt production line.