Keyence doubles field of view of IM series image dimension measurement systems

Simply place a target on the stage of a Keyence IM-6600 and press the button. Up to 99 points are measured with a high degree of accuracy in a matter of seconds. As well as simplifying measurement procedures, the system recognises and measures shapes automatically. It features an autofocus complete with a motorised Z-stage with a 30 mm travel range and distortion adjustment. Lastly, it offers the advantage of eliminating inter-operator variability problems and provides an easy way of managing measurement records. The IM-6600 controller can be used with four different head units — the IM-6015/IM-6025 (general purpose models), the IM-6140 (high precision model, 0.1 µm repetition accuracy) and the IM-6120 (200 mm wide-field model). Four types of illumination are now available – backlighting, epi-illumination (for measuring non-through dimensions), ring epi-illumination (for measuring shiny targets or tapered surfaces such as conic sections) and grazing illumination (for measuring targets with uneven surfaces or contours that are hard to delineate due to the diffusion of light). Ring epi-illumination makes measuring non-through dimensions on bottle caps and other targets with raised surfaces possible. This high intensity ring of white LED light is cast onto the circumference of the lens. The ring is divided into four parts that are individually turned on and off to obtain the sharpest image. These settings are retained for each specific target to be measured. Statistical processing of data has also been improved with a new application that extracts measurement data so that it can be imported into conventional spreadsheet software. Users can choose from a set of document templates and customise each layout with a logo or other visual element. The trend graph/histogram function allows on-site analysis of production trends and variations, and can help to reduce rejection rates.