Here, we are not talking about your forward vision as outlined in your company’s mission statement. What we mean are those systems that you may (or may not) have in place to utilize “seeing” in order to monitor activities within your business. However, such are the vagaries of language that we may still not have reached the same page as you. More things that we are not talking about would include any security staff that you employ to use their eyes and scrutinize your premises and those attempting to enter them. Nor are we talking about those CCTV cameras you have installed in the parking lot (or anywhere else for that matter).
Our meaning of vision systems does involve the use of cameras. However, they will be linked to computers to monitor both the flow of a production process and the end results regarding the product coming out of that flow. Such vision systems will assist in speeding up production and cutting down on raw material waste as well as monitoring the output quality.
So, Who Does Use Vision Systems?
The print industry is a prime example especially those who print in volume onto long rolls of thin material (not only paper but also plastics and textiles). This portion of the print trade refers to the long rolls of blank material (onto which they print) as webs (as in web offset printing).
Rollers transport this web through the printing press at high speeds and a common problem lies in ensuring that the web flows smoothly and stays in alignment. Should problems occur in the web’s progress through the machine, a lot of the material could be wasted if the problem is not immediately fixed or the press quickly shut down.
A system of cameras linked to specially programmed computers can monitor and inspect the web far more reliably than the human eye alone. This, along with the computer’s ability to react immediately a problem occurs, provides the core of vision systems’ abilities to keep presses running at high speeds with reduced wastage. This advantage is not only available for book, newspaper or magazine type printing. Those responsible for the printing on packaging and labels (whether in house of through sub-contract printing) also find vision systems essential to their operations.
