There are many kinds of electronic connectors, but the manufacturing process is basically the same, and the manufacturing of electronic connectors can generally be divided into stamping, electroplating, injection molding, and assembly four stages.

 

 

The manufacturing process for electronic connectors usually begins with stamping pins. The electronic connector (pin) is made of thin metal strips stamped by a large high-speed press. One end of the rolled metal strip passes through the front end of the hydraulic press, and the other end pulls the winding wheel and connecting wheel from the metal strip through the hydraulic table.

 

 

After stamping, the pin of the connector should be sent to the plating department. At this stage, the electrical contact surface of the connector will be coated with various metal coatings. In the process of feeding the stamping pin into the plating equipment, there will also be problems such as distortion, fracture or deformation of the pin. The techniques described in this article make it easy to spot such quality defects. However, for most machine vision system suppliers, many quality defects in the electroplating process remain "off-limits" to inspection systems. Electronics manufacturers want to detect a variety of inconsistent defects on the plating surface of connector pins, such as small scratches and pinholes.

 

Although these defects are easily recognizable in other products (such as aluminum can bottoms or other relatively flat surfaces); However, due to the irregular and angled surface design of most electronic connectors, it is difficult for visual inspection systems to obtain enough images to identify these subtle defects. Because some types of pins need to be coated with multiple layers of metal, manufacturers also want the detection system to be able to distinguish between various metal coatings and check that they are in place and in the right proportions. Since the grayscale of the image is almost the same across different metal coatings, the vision system using a black and white camera is a very difficult task. Although cameras with color vision systems are able to successfully distinguish between these different metal coatings, lighting is still difficult due to the Angle and reflection irregularities of the coating surface.

 

 

The plastic box holder of the electronic connector is made at the injection molding stage. Molten plastic is usually injected into a metal film and then quickly cooled. When the molten plastic does not fully fill the tire film, this is a typical defect that needs to be detected at the injection molding stage. Other defects include filling or partial blockage of socket holes (which must be kept clean and smooth in order to properly insert pins in the final part). Because the backlight easily identifies box seat leaks and socket blockages, quality inspection of machine vision systems is relatively simple and easy to implement.

 

 

Final assembly is the final stage of electronic connector manufacturing. Insert the plating pin into the injection box base in two ways: single or combined. Single insertion means inserting one pin at a time; When combined, multiple pins are inserted into the box seat at the same time. Regardless of the insertion method used, the manufacturer should check that all feet in the assembly stage are missing and positioned correctly; Another routine inspection task is related to the measurement of the distance between the connector mating surfaces. During the stamping phase, the assembly of the connectors also challenges the inspection speed of the automatic inspection system.

 

Although most assembly line beats are one or two per second, vision systems typically require multiple different inspection items through camera connectors. Therefore, the detection speed once again becomes an important indicator of system performance. After assembly, the external dimensions of the connector are much larger than the allowable dimensional tolerances for a single pin. This also creates another problem for visual inspection systems. For example, some connector sockets have hundreds of pins, more than a foot in size, and the detection accuracy of each pin position must be within a few thousandths of an inch.
Obviously, the inspection of a one-foot connector cannot be done in an image, and the visual inspection system can only detect a limited number of pin qualities in the field at once. There are two ways to complete the entire connector inspection: using multiple cameras (increasing system costs); Or when the connector passes through the lens, the camera will be triggered continuously, and the vision system will continuously take a single image "splicing" to get up and judge whether the quality of the entire connector is up to scratch. After the connector is assembled, the ppt visual inspection system usually uses the latter method.