Article: NIR Trends: Machine Vision In The Short Wave Infrared

By Douglas Malchow, Business Development Manager for Industrial Products, Sensors Unlimited, Inc., part of Goodrich Corporation

Manufacturers have used cameras to monitor their processes since the first industrial cameras were made available. What do you do when there are no visible differences to distinguish good product from bad? With major advancements in industrial imaging, we can now use non-visible imaging to ‘see’:

• through coatings
• the uniformity of transparent coatings
• defects inside hot hollow glass bottles
• the end of furnace processes despite smoke and particulate obscurants
• differences in moisture levels
• foreign objects mixed in with raw agricultural products
• differences in recycled plastics
• if the right pill is inside the package