Automate was a major success, with more than 850 exhibitors in attendance. This saw an increase of 13% from the previous event. During our time there, we caught up with countless innovators in machine vision and image processing, including Opto Engineering.
While at the Opto Engineering booth, we spoke with Gregory Harrison, their Western US Area Manager. He showed us some of the top products they had on display, focusing on their new camera line which boasts exceptional build quality and a five-year warranty. We were shown the difference between their high-resolution cameras and lower-resolution alternatives. We saw their 31 megapixel sensor size, and compared the resolution with their five-megapixel images.
Another focus for Opto Engineering has been its liquid lenses. Gregory explained:
They are fixed focal, there are absolutely no moving parts. These work by having a metal coil inside the lens that the membrane wraps around. When you adjust the amount of current that flows through that coil, it changes the physical shape that the lens takes. When paired with our GL series camera, you can sequence this to oscillate between multiple different frequencies.”
They set it to the right frequency to focus and get a crisp image of the top of an object and the background, and had it switch focus between the two. This can be utilised in any form of inspection, especially if the item being inspected has varying geometry depending on which part of the object you look at.
Going back to liquid lenses, Opto Engineering also presented the TCZEL telecentric lense, featuring two liquid lenses.
Gregory explained how this works:
“The telecentric lens has to be set at a proper working distance to focus and get a good image. This allows you to adjust both the working distance and the magnification, so it’s doing a live image right there zooming in and out on that microchip.”
