Electronic imaging components used in processing and packaging lines in the food and pharmaceutical industries must meet the same exacting hygiene requirements that apply to machinery and equipment in direct contact with foodstuffs. While cameras, line lasers and lighting are usually installed above conveyors, without direct contact with critical products, there is nevertheless a high risk of pollution. Product residues swirled up during steam-jet cleaning can drip down onto food processes the next day. In order to prevent contamination, machine vision components in hygienically sensitive zones must be housed in suitable enclosures that enable easy, thorough cleaning and disinfection. Equally, mounting frames for devices and enclosures must be designed to avoid any bacteria buildup and enable easy disinfection. Up until now, the market offered no comprehensive mounting systems. Operators had to either resort to their own special designs and/or accept increased effort for cleaning and disinfecting their machine vision setups.

First Modular Construction Kit  to Hygienic Standards

The Hygienic Machine Vision Building Kit from German manufacturer Autovimation – the first of its kind – now closes this gap. It is an economic, complete solution that can be individually configured to the application requirements. Any number of cameras, lasers, lights and other components and devices can be freely aligned and oriented. The system is intentionally designed as a modular building kit for flexible, scalable designs. It includes stainless-steel rods, hygienic 90° elbow rod connectors and T pieces, front and rear mount feet and cable glands for building a hygienic mounting frame that holds hygienic IP69k enclosures for cameras, lighting, and lasers.

Easy Configuration of Bespoke Vision Systems

One of the many advantages of the building kit – it works equally well standing upright or suspended from the ceiling. Using the hygienic 90° elbows and front mount feet, the steel rods can be installed above a conveyor. Protective camera enclosures are mounted using the T pieces, which enable flexible camera orientation in any angle and position. Cable routing inside the rods is another feature of the system that saves users a lot of time and effort. Not only are the cables optimally protected against mechanical damage, but they also no longer need a separate food approval either. For a bespoke configuration, users now simply shorten the rods to the required length and drill a hole for the cables where they wish to position the camera – this will be fully covered and sealed by the T piece. At the opposite end, the cables are guided into control cabinets or machine enclosures through front or rear mount feet, which also ensure perfect sealing. Alternatively, hygienic tubes are available for the final leg, guiding cables into enclosures or existing wiring ducts.

Modular, Scalable Components

The stainless-steel rods are connected via 90° elbows. T pieces also allow users to extend the reach of the frame in a desired direction, for example, in order to install line lasers for laser triangulation. The connectors provide tight IP69k sealing of the mechanical interfaces. Their robust internal clamping ensures sturdiness even in installations with longer rods and off-center loads. Autovimation offers the 30 mm diameter steel rods in standard lengths of 0.5, 1, 1.5 and 2 m. Other lengths are available on request. The range of accessories also includes front and rear mount feet for attaching the stainless-steel rods to the floor or wall or a metal machine cover. These are designed for screw-attachment from the front or from the rear, for example, from inside a control cabinet. All parts of the modular building kit, including screws and nuts, feature a curved outer geometry to let liquids drain easily. All joints are sealed with gaskets made of hygienic, chemical-resistant FDA-approved elastomers that avoid recesses and dead spaces and prevent contamination. The same holds for the blind plugs for sealing open rod ends.

Hygienic Protective Enclosures for Cameras, LED Lights and Lasers

For hygiene conformity, the manufacturer uses Hygienic Plus versions of its Dolphin, Shark, and Piranha enclosures to protect cameras, LED lights and lasers. Featuring a < 0.8 µm surface roughness and IP69k protection, these enclosures made of AISI 316L (V4A) stainless steel prevent germ deposits and withstand steam-jet cleaning. All seals and tubes are approved for direct contact with foodstuffs by the FDA and according to EU regulations 10/2011 or 1935/2004. The sealing materials provide high chemical and temperature resistance and withstand fats and mineral oils as well as aggressive acids and bases in the long term.

Shark Enclosures for Larger Cameras

Autovimation’s Shark and Dolphin protective camera enclosures fit a wide range of compact cameras. The Shark series is designed for cameras with lens diameters up to 85 mm and housing dimensions up to 60 x 60 mm. The internal installation space in S, M and L enclosure sizes is 143 mm, 193 mm or 263 mm long and can be increased, if necessary, by using 30 mm long enclosure extensions. The innovative Meganova ring light, available in five light colors, fits in Shark camera enclosures. Eight 1W Oslon LEDs arranged around the camera lens ensure optimum lighting of the area of interest. Customer-specified beam angles are configured ex works by means of lenses. The Meganova ring light’s onboard flash controller allows users to set the pulse length, the trigger behavior, amplitudes up to 570 percent of the nominal current and various other parameters. The camera trigger output connects directly to the ring light’s opto-isolated trigger input. This simplifies cable management and ensures accurate response times in high-speed flash applications.

Dolphin Enclosures for Smaller Cameras

The Dolphin series caters to smaller compact cameras. The enclosures in three lengths accommodate camera formats up to 29 x 47 mm and 40 x 40 mm. The Dolphin L enclosure houses cameras with a total assembly length of up to 222 mm. If more space is needed, 30 mm enclosure extensions are available for this series as well. As with the Shark series, any camera optics can be positioned directly behind the front window. The patented Quick-Lock/Heat-Guide camera mount provides excellent heat dissipation from the inside of the enclosure and cools the housed camera down by about 15 °C. Both enclosure series are available with front windows made of FDA-compliant acrylic or BK7 glass, germanium, sapphire, or heat protection glass. Cable output is either through a hygienic cable gland at the rear or through the enclosure handle, which directly connects to a T piece or elbow and is completely sealed.

Piranha Line Laser Enclosures

The robust protective enclosures from the Piranha series are used to integrate line lasers with a diameter of 19 to 20 mm. The 28 mm wide front window, which can be easily attached or replaced by means of a circlip, comes with a BK7 window with double-sided anti-reflective coating, or optionally with a sapphire or food-grade acrylic window. The deep front cover allows lasers with or without a manual focusing ring to be placed directly behind the front window. Users can access the focusing ring at any time, simply by removing the screw cap. Since Piranha enclosures are typically installed using the hygienic T pieces, Autovimation supplies them with a standard cable gland made of AISI 316L stainless steel. Alternatively, versions with hygienic cable glands are available.

Conclusion

Autovimation is virtually the only manufacturer of special enclosures and positioning systems that can be used universally with different camera brands and in the most demanding industrial conditions. The Hygienic Machine Vision Building Kit is yet another trailblazing innovation that standardizes and considerably simplifies camera installations in particularly sensitive applications. For users to easily achieve compliance in every application, the manufacturer is preparing the full EHEDG certification of all components of the building kit.