Inspection and error analysis of Geneva gear on machine vision system using Sherlock™ and VB 6.0 Algorithm

Indexing mechanisms find several applications in machineries, equipments and instruments such as, watches, projectors, machine tools, printing and pressing machinery, packaging and automatic machinery, etc., Currently, Geneva mechanism is extensively used for this purpose due to its reduction in shock loading. Therefore, Geneva mechanism should be carefully designed and those attained dimensions inclusive of tolerances must be measured closely to the true value. These measurements need more than one measuring instrument, which cumulatively costs much. Machine Vision is the suitable remedial solution, which acts fast and reduces the cost for large quantity measurement. In this work, an updated version of analyzer is developed by collaborating Machine vision software with Visual Basic 6.0 to make easy and comfortable, even the user is not fully aware of machine vision operations. The Geneva wheel is designed and modeled using CAD software, the dimensional features of the component is compared with the original modeled CAD image, taken as template. For this, a machine Vision software named Sherlock™ is interfaced with Visual Basic 6.0 designed window. This window is customized for user friendly environment to facilitate even an unskilled operator to operate the inspection system without having a deep knowledge about Machine Vision and its software's.