Dimensional Inspection for the Plastics Industry

A common method in plastic manufacturing is injection molding. Injection molding is shooting liquified plastic into a mold and then cooling it to a final form. Although this method is widely used in the automotive, food and beverage, electronics, and medical device industries, it’s not foolproof. If not done correctly, injection molding results in defects like unnecessary burrs and chips. With these defects, measuring can be inaccurate, leading to costly issues.

KEYENCE’s industrial measuring instruments are ideal for combatting this problem because the camera detects and corrects deformities. KEYENCE’s IM-8000, LM, and LM-X industrial measuring instruments pick up molding defects and categorize them as abnormal locations. The screen eliminates the abnormal forms, considering them outliers, and removes those data points from its calculations, ensuring the measurement is accurate.

One of the attractions of plastic is its flexibility in shapes, sizes, and even colors. But, the non-geometric shapes, range of sizes, and colors that blend to the background make measuring a bit more complicated than other materials.

To ensure that none of these factors get in the way of precise measurement, instant measurement for plastic with KEYENCE’s LM-X, LM, and IM-8000 includes auto-positioning, high-resolution cameras, and lighting.

The LM-X, LM, and IM-8000 come with high resolution cameras for great edge extraction, as well as KEYENCE’s easy-to-use proprietary software. These high-resolution cameras work with the auto-positioning function to consistently find the edges and measure as accurately as possible.

Auto-positioning means the machine will adjust the virtual measurement orientation to measure plastic molded parts the same way every time. It adjusts the illumination, focal height, and accounts for new part orientations, allowing for a consistent measurement. These changes in lighting and focal height simplify measuring deep set shapes, rounded corners, height differences, and flatness and for the LM and LM-X, it can even work as a plastic thickness gauge.

It can’t be emphasized enough how versatile plastic is across industries and products. Because of this, one plastic manufacturing plant may produce thousands of different parts for multiple needs. To keep it simple and efficient, KEYENCE’s instant measurement for plastic parts provides the ultimate versatility. Using KEYENCE’s IM Series for instant measurement of plastic means measuring up to 300 dimensions on up to 100 parts in seconds.

At KEYENCE, we’re ready to help you incorporate our systems into your measuring. We offer free on-site demonstrations so you can see firsthand how quickly and accurately the IM-8000, LM, and LM-X can measure your plastic parts. Contact us today to pick the best system for you.