Development of an advanced in-line gear inspection system

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Vehcom, a member of Linamar, manufactures gears and powertrain parts for the automotive industry, and employs about 450 people in Guelph, Ontario, including 15 R&D members. Vehcom manufactures over five million parts annually. Of these, approximately 1.2 million parts are gears of various shapes and designs. All of the gears are inspected manually for various types of defects. A low but significant percentage of the produced gears are rejected due to quality control and detection of faults or defects. The purpose of this research project is to develop an automated on-line inspection system for detecting defects in gears used in automotive powertrain systems. The proposed research offers improvements to machine vision and estimation accuracy, robustness to multiple defects, reliability, and safety. Furthermore, the technology can be transferable to other manufacturing industries to improve quality control, efficiency, and cost-efficient solutions to help them remain competitive in the market. In addition, the proposed project will provide training for graduate students and a team of undergraduates on advanced manufacturing and robotic systems. These highly qualified personnel (HQP) will contribute to the workforce of Canadian automation and manufacturing industries.