Testing of Electronic Connectors
Testing of Over 1.7 Million Pins per Day
A modern car consists of approximately 5,000 different connectors, each equipped with numerous pins that control the entire vehicle’s electronics. On average, each vehicle utilizes around 100,000 pins, which undergo a highly precise quality inspection before installation. This is crucial because the malfunction of a single pin could lead to a complete failure of the entire car’s electronics. To address this need, AT – Automation Technology GmbH, in collaboration with aku.automation, has developed an application that reliably checks the coplanarity of these pins. This inspection operates 24/7 in up to 40 machines simultaneously, resulting in the examination of approximately 1.7 million pins per day.
Challenge
The crucial factors in this application are not only the enormous speed required for inspection but also the reliable assessment of pin condition after assembly. Additionally, the challenge was to develop an application that could be applied to many different types of electronic connectors and be user-friendly for the customer.
Solution
The electronic connectors are inspected using high-resolution 3D dual-head sensors from AT’s new C6 series. These sensors simultaneously scan the pins of the electronic connectors from two sides to avoid occlusion and provide more detailed data for the 3D point cloud. What makes this solution unique is that AT has developed a sensor chip with the innovative “Widely Advance Rapid Profiling” (WARP) technology for the new C6 sensor. This sensor operates at an astonishingly fast profile speed of up to 38 kHz and offers a resolution of 3,072 points per profile. As a result, inspections like those of electronic connectors suddenly take on an entirely new dimension.
Dual Head Sensor
Precision
