AIA: Frame Grabbers, Software Help Manage Documents
Gunther International (Norwich, CT) manufactures machinery for high-volume mailing and document-finishing operations. In a situation that is analogous to many high-volume assembly and packaging applications, reading technology has long been a key component in the speed and reliability of the company's equipment. Today, that means technology that is both user-friendly and capable of reading all bar code systems.
Recently the company began using Windows-based Sherlock point-and-click software from Coreco Imaging (St. Laurent, Quebec), incorporating the MVTools vision algorithm library,a complete C/C++ library of grayscale machine vision tools.
To reduce development costs, Gunther International research and development engineer Joseph Truax created a unique graphical user interface in-house-what he describes as one of the reasons Gunther International chose the system. Users access MVTools through the Visual Basic application running on a touchscreen monitor that communicates with the Gunther host computer, which controls the many I/O points on each piece of equipment.
Within each Gunther machine, a reader outfitted with a 1stVision MC0-CC-P60 camera with a 1/3-inch progressive scan sensor from Sony Corp. (Tokyo) looks at the bar code on each document before the document starts down the path to being folded, printed, or otherwise processed. The bar code data is transferred to a Coreco PC2-Vision frame grabber, which converts the image into a digital format and transmits it to the host PC running the vision application. The PC then determines how to assemble each package.
"From every standpoint-including cost, ease of use, and flexibility-the MVTools solution has proven very successful," Truax says.
For more on imaging software and frame grabbers, call 514-333-1301, visit www.imaging.com or eInquiry 4.
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