Visual Inspection of Cosmetic and Functional Defects in a Manufacturing Environment

INTRODUCTION Often in manufacturing, visual inspectors are used to approve the correctness of a free form surface‟s cosmetic or functional characteristics. While the human‟s adaptive interpretation allows flexibility where standard vision systems fail, the human inspection process remains highly subjective and inconsistent between inspectors. This can be problematic for manufacturing due to the necessity that even the smallest variations in curvature or blemishes can result in a nonfunctional or irregular looking part [1]. The introduction of phase defectometry as an optical metrology technique can now give production facilities an objective view of their manufacturing process by imaging irregularities on the surface of free form parts [2]. Additionally, these facilities can achieve peace of mind that the once highly subjective process of visual inspection now has reliable repeatability.