IRIFIO

Smart vision and sensory technology are being used to detect defects in glass, ceramics and metal castings manufacturing – enabling the UK’s foundation industries to increase efficiency, reduce energy consumption and remain competitive in global markets while meeting their commitments to net-zero targets

Imperfections and inconsistencies in the foundation industries’ production processes can be costly – reducing productivity and increasing waste.

A tiny inclusion in a glass panel, for example, can cause it to shatter, while rogue-coloured bricks are scrapped, and a flaw in the casting of components of a high-spec sports car can be an extremely expensive mistake.

Many methods currently used to detect defects are energy-intensive and time-consuming, but research and development company i3D robotics (i3D) has developed technology for faster, consistent, and more accurate inspections.

“A lot of the processes to find faults still rely on a lot of manual intervention, such as scanning lines of bricks by eye for distorted shapes or inconsistent colours. It limits the ability of these industries to be more competitive and meet environmental targets,” explains Dr Richard French, Innovation Lead at i3D. “Our technology offers the potential to refine production processes, reducing energy consumption, waste and CO₂ emissions, as well as increasing production confidence.”

i3D combines stereo machine vision systems, augmented with bespoke sensors, with unique sets of algorithms to create highly detailed 3D images and data that can inform tweaks to production. The technology is currently used to detect defects in steel plates – reducing inspection times by 96% and with close to 100% accuracy – and has potential application in numerous industries.

With £2m from the Transforming Foundation Industries (TFI) challenge, i3D led the £4m Intelligent Robotic Inspection for Foundation Industry Optimisation (IRIFIO) demonstration project, working with commercial partners to test and demonstrate its technology in the glass, ceramics and metal castings industries.

Detecting inclusions in glass

Glass can be affected by Nickel Sulphide (NiS) inclusions. These difficult-to-detect inclusions can cause failure in panels months and even years after installation. Currently, quality inspection tests require selected glass panels to undergo the energy-intensive and time-consuming process of ‘heat soaking’, where it is heated to extremely high temperatures for long periods of time to artificially stimulate NiS inclusion failure.

With previous funding from the Transforming Foundation Industries Fast Start programme, i3D developed vision sensors and combined them with bespoke machine learning databases capable of identifying tiny defects in glass during the float glass production process. For the IRIFIO demo, the team deployed the novel technology on a pilot rolled glass line at the research and development centre Glass Futures.

“Glass Futures gave us the opportunity to deliberately distribute contaminants into the glass, which enabled the training of the machine learning and neural networks to recognise and classify different types of defects, many of which are smaller than anything that could be spotted through using normal inspection equipment,” says Dr French.

Compared with heat-soaking, the technology has the potential to reduce the flat glass industry’s CO₂ emissions by 20,000 tonnes per year, alongside reducing the amount of waste generated by destructive testing.

Spotting rogue bricks and roof tiles

Currently, bricks and clay roof tiles are manually assessed for uniformity of shape and colour, where individual operators pull defective items from a line. The project tested the technology at the production facilities of brick and tile manufacturers Wienerberger, Ibstock Brick and Forterra.

“We developed a combination of 3D imaging and spectrometry for calibrating the colour value of a brick or tile. This information is relayed to an operator via a screen in real-time so they can remove anything that’s warped, chipped or the wrong colour. They can make adjustments downstream in production before firing, potentially preventing the scrappage of whole palettes,” says Dr French. “Production margins on bricks are already very tight. Increased accuracy in production means manufacturers can reduce the amount they allow for scrappage, which offers a rare opportunity to tighten margins further.”

Identifying faults in metal castings

To explore the use of its technology in the metal castings sector, particularly aluminium casting, i3D worked with the University of Sheffield’s Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre (AMRC) and bespoke castings specialists Sarginsons Industries.

“Sarginsons produce castings for the automotive and aerospace industries. They specialise in lightweight aluminium designs, so their castings have incredibly complex shapes. It can take around 60-70 hours of manual inspection in a metrology area to dimensionally and visually check every little pocket and gully of a casting,” says Dr French. “Our technology intercepts the casting on the production line and conducts a lot of that metrology rapidly, providing a very early-stage pass or fail for the casting before it gets any further, saving costs and energy associated with failure at a much later stage of the process.”

Monitoring moisture levels in ceramic moulds

The moisture content of clay plays a vital role in ceramic production: too wet and energy is wasted firing the kilns; too dry and it risks cracking when fired. As part of the Transforming Foundation Industries Fast Start programme, i3D created software to overlay thermal data on detailed 3D scans from stereo cameras, enabling accurate assessment of moisture content. The IRIFIO project applied the same technology for moulds for metal castings, often requiring multiple layers to be built up in stages.

“Working again with AMRC, we explored how thermal imaging technology with 3D vision could allow more accurate monitoring of when a layer was dry and ready for the next layer of epoxy or ceramic,” says Dr French. “It’s early stages, but we’re looking at reducing the build time of a mould by around 50%, as well as increasing confidence that the mould has no defects, which is crucial if you’re pouring in a high-value material such as a titanium alloy for the aerospace industry.”

Improving user interfaces and data usage

i3D’s technology produces enormous volumes of data, so a crucial part of the IRIFIO project involved working with the Science and Technology Facility Council’s Hartree Centre on data optimisation techniques. This reduced data levels to more workable amounts for the needs of the industry in real-time.

In addition, software specialists Vision Metric, developed user interfaces. “These interfaces translate the data into visuals for operators on production lines – a simple pass or fail for a brick, for example. They also provide access to more detailed information for production managers to tweak inspection thresholds or draw production data.”

Keeping UK foundation industries competitive in a global market

The project has taken technology developed by i3D and its partners a step closer to commercialisation, particularly in the brick industry, where industrial partners are keen to implement. The company also hopes to expand the collaboration with an aerospace castings manufacturer on a follow-on project.

The complexities of float glass production mean more validation is needed before the technology can be deployed on a plant. However, the analytical capabilities developed through the project have created opportunities in the container glass sector. The company has embarked on a challenge to resolve glass bottle production defects for Encirc in Northern Ireland.

The project has also driven new projects in the construction sector. A-TRIS is a robotic inspection system for rail tunnel construction that builds on the IRIFIO technology to create an integrated real-time system for tunnel services installation.

“Many of the UK’s energy-intensive industries have been hard hit in recent years by rising energy costs and increasing global competition where labour rates and emissions regulations are significantly lower,” says Dr French. “If they are to meet their net-zero targets and remain competitive, they need technology, such as ours, that gives them the ability to produce high-quality products in ultra-efficient, lower-carbon ways.”