Preliminary Development of an Automated Optical Inspection System for Quality Control of Circular Saw Inserts

Circular saw inserts are fundamental and high-value-added cutting tool inserts used for sawing, slot milling, and other related machining processes. In their mass production, sintered blanks are first made by powder metallurgy and then precisely form-ground to generate the geometric shapes and dimensions required for cutting action. In order to ensure quality in the production of circular saw inserts, the defects of sintered blanks and geometric accuracy of semi-products must be inspected before and after the form-grinding process, respectively. To this end, this paper presents the preliminary development of an automated optical inspection (AOI) system for quality control of circular saw inserts. A prototype system was designed and constructed in this study. Image processing procedures were then developed to perform the calibration process of the prototype system, defect detection of the sintered blanks, and geometric measurement of the form-ground semi-products. Experiments were conducted to inspect insert samples and test the feasibility of the developed prototype system. Preliminary experimental results verified the presented prototype system and image processing procedures as being able to inspect certain circular saw inserts for ensuring quality control.