When you have a vision application, how should that first conversation “go” with a machine vision engineer? You might ask yourself similar questions before going on a first date?
- What do I need to bring?
- What will we talk about?
- How much is dinner going to be?
When calling EPIC for the first time there is no set requirement for how much information you need to bring. You do not need to have everything figured out before you call EPIC. If you are not sure if the application is even possible, please call us. We would be happy to discuss the application and help to sort out the details.
We know that you are the expert of your product or process and we do rely on you for some key information. If you already have a good idea of the application specifications, it streamlines the project process if you are prepared to share as much detail as possible.
Just like you don’t need to know everything about a person to decide if you want a second date – we don’t need all of the project information in the first conversation.
If you are the type of person that likes to sit at the front of the class and get a head start on the home work, the following is a list of information that our engineers will commonly ask for after the first phone call:
- Photos of the line and process
- Photos of the parts to be inspected
- Part sizes
- Number different part sizes and recipes
- Photos of representative defects
- Definition of defects including locations and size (dimensions if possible)
- Sample parts
- both pass and fail with representative defect
- Part rate (parts/minute)
- Line speed (fpm or m/s)
- Integration requirements (line PLC? Communication protocols? Other equipment to tie into vision results?)
In most cases, EPIC engineers will help to sort out the details for your specific application. If possible, providing these types of details will give you a head start when you call and enable the EPIC engineer to provide more meaningful answers to your questions.