Abstract
The present paper is the outcome of a research project whose main aim is the development of a set of optical devices that should become part of an integrated measurement cell able to analyse and control panel quality for production monitoring and, also, to accomplish the research purpose of a better understanding of sheet metal forming process.
The measurement approaches that have been set up are mainly addressed to a full- field evaluation of principal strains and to highlight small shape deviation between a faultless reference shape and the panel under inspection. Doing so, both structural defects (such as necking, excessive thinning or unstrained areas) and shape defects (spring back, wrinkles, grooves and indentations) can be accurately detected.
Moreover, the use of a robot arm to scan the panel surface with the developed devices enhances significantly the system capabilities. In fact, it allows to automate and speed up the image acquisition procedure so that the results are improved in terms of accuracy, dimension of the scanned area and number of inspected parts.