Customer: Linamar Role: Vision / Automation Engineer Via: Ascension Automation Solutions Location: Guelph, Ontario Timeline: Aug 2025

The Challenge

A CNC machining line producing gears was experiencing intermittent quality escapes:

  • CNC occasionally skips teeth during machining
  • Operators can enter wrong dimensions
  • Air supply instability leading to inconsistent part positioning
  • Manual checks weren’t catching edge cases

Stand-alone vision inspection station integrated into the production cell:

System Design

Designed a robust, PLC-integrated vision inspection system that detects missing or incorrect gear teeth, fits cycle-time constraints, and survives real factory conditions.

Camera, lens, lighting, and trigger strategy tuned specifically for teeth geometry. PLC-synchronized capture was critical — timing mattered a lot here.

Robot placing part before inspection:

Bench Testing

Built an offline bench test to simulate real-world failure modes:

  • Bad air supply conditions
  • Wrong dimension inputs
  • Timing drift scenarios

Validated inspection logic before touching production equipment:

Integration & Commissioning

Key integration work:

  • Camera trigger timing optimization
  • Vision ↔ PLC ↔ Robot handshake coordination
  • Fanuc robot teach points for part handling
  • System validation and fault logging

Full inspection station overview:

Results

  • Stable detection of missing and incorrect teeth
  • Issues caught before parts reached downstream operations
  • Smooth commissioning thanks to early bench validation
  • Operators gained confidence in automated inspection

Demo Video

Tools and Technologies Employed

  • Machine Vision Systems
  • PLC Integration
  • Fanuc Robot Programming
  • Bench Test Validation