From Industry to Academic Laboratory: Lab-Scaled Industrial Web Handling System for Vision Evaluation and Detection of Wrinkles

We are presenting a capstone Senior Design project proposed, developed and implemented by a team of undergraduate students in Drexel University’s Engineering Technology program (a four year Bachelor of Science degree). This system will reduce the cost of manufacturing of continuous-web products by eliminating the operator based wrinkle detection currently used in industry. Using vision technology combined with the known physical properties of the product the system can recognize and react to waves in the web that lead to these wrinkle formations, using a laser line generator to highlight the waves in the web, and then using the angle relationship between the laser, the camera and the web to measure the wavelength and amplitude of the wave. To develop and test this theory the students built a prototype system that mimics a real continuous web machine allowing for tensioning and intentionally wrinkling the product. This model of a real web system allows for measurements in a controlled environment. This project is a combination of educational laboratory set-up as well as an innovative approach to solve an existing industrial problem. This prototype is developed as laboratory teaching equipment, allowing students to visualize, monitor and control, and also improve a real industrial manufacturing process, giving them the opportunity to grasp the complexity and the interdisciplinary nature of those processes. Introduction In a fast changing industrial environment, educational laboratory activities need to keep pace with new and emerging technologies that are implemented, in order to provide students with the required skills consistent with the newest technologies available. Real life industrial settings are often too expensive and complex to implement at laboratory level. The fundamental challenging problems in manufacturing education are related to: (a) Improving the student–instructional technologies interface to incorporate the required learning tools; (b) Improving teaching and learning effectiveness. On the other hand, the advancement of increasing efficiency and reducing the cost of manufacturing is contingent on innovation. Contemporary manufacturers have the option of selecting optimum technologies or processes to suit their manufacturing environment. When these technologies are judiciously combined to address a specific manufacturing challenge such as the one presented in the paper, it will produce suitable results in terms of cost, quality, and time. In manufacturing industry oftentimes defects in products are identified by operators examining the product. In the manufacturing of sheet products the material is typically a very long or continuous sheet, which is referred to as a web. Continuous web applications often encounter wrinkles and creases as defects in the product; these first show themselves as waves in the sheet. Products in continuous web applications can wrinkle for many reasons and when wrinkles form the product is damaged. Operators cannot always detect these wrinkle defects or maybe preoccupied when they form. An automatic method of detecting wrinkle defects in web material would allow for operators to focus on other processes in web manufacturing. Using vision P ge 24632.3 technology combined with the known physical properties of the product we can recognize and react to waves in the web that lead to these wrinkle formations. The paper presents a capstone project developed by a team of students in our Engineering Technology (ET) program within Drexel University’s College of Engineering. We would like to emphasize that the project was proposed entirely by the students based on a real product and technology request form the sponsoring company (Mannington Inc., a Pennsylvania based company). Based on the success of the project and the funds availability, the company will decide upon full implementation of this system within their production system. This project is based on an innovative system that will reduce the cost of manufacturing of continuous-web products by eliminating the operator based wrinkle detection currently used in industry. Using vision technology combined with the physical properties of the product the scaled system developed by our students can recognize and react to waves in the web that lead to these wrinkle formations, using a laser line generator to highlight the waves in the web, and then using the angle relationship between the laser, the camera and the web to measure the wavelength and amplitude of the wave. To develop and test this theory, students built a fully automated prototype system that mimics a real continuous web machine allowing for automatic tensioning and intentionally wrinkling the product and removing wrinkle defects based on vision system feedback. The developed model of a real web system allows for measurements in a controlled environment, being a combination of educational laboratory set-up and an innovative approach to solve an existing industrial problem. This prototype is developed also as laboratory teaching equipment, allowing students to visualize, monitor, control, and improve a real industrial manufacturing process, giving them the opportunity to grasp the complexity and the interdisciplinary nature of those processes. This project is an innovative approach towards solving an existing industrial problem, as well as a novel instructional and research tool. Several courses in our ET curricula, ranging from manufacturing to measurements and instrumentations as well as quality control are scheduled to be impacted by this type of trans-disciplinary capstone projects. The paper aims mainly to emphasize the impact of this type of inter and multidisciplinary student-led industry sponsored project in our curricula as well as in student learning outcomes as a whole. Objectives Although the manufacturing industry is rapidly evolving, little progress is being reported, with very few notable exceptions, on the role of educational institutions in either keeping pace with this growth or addressing the importance of introducing new emerging engineering technologies, applications, and effective classroom and laboratory instruction. Preparing our students for postgraduation success must be the paramount of engineering and engineering technology education. However, it is critical for engineering/technology to transition from theoretical work in the classroom towards experiential learning with applications of technology and design. The main objective of senior design courses in engineering and engineering technology curricula is to bridge the gap between academic theory and real world practice. Accordingly, the proposed senior projects should include elements of both credible analysis and experimental proofing as discussed in ABETs criteria. The senior design project can serve as an excellent culminating experience in the program of study when it focuses on research and design projects that have practical value to consumers or to industry. For the Drexel’s College of Engineering’s ET program at our university, the senior design course is a year-long educational journey (three P ge 24632.4 quarters) that takes an idea generated by a student team or an industrial sponsor and culminates in a product or project. This course is an excellent capstone experience, which requires both teamwork and individual skills in solving a modern industrial problem. Senior design projects seminars in fall and spring quarters bring the students, faculty, and industrial partners together to see the student’s results and to give them the additional experience of public presentation of their work. The importance of project work in the curriculum of our undergraduate engineering programs is well understood. Students want and need to know the best industrial practices also. An engineer should be a designer, thinker, innovator and systems integrator. Hence, the educational system should inculcate into its students various aspects such as engineering principles, standards and practices, design methodologies, modeling and optimization capabilities, systems analysis and integration techniques and new technologies and research areas. An engineer can become a thinker, a creative person or an innovator only if he is allowed to independently put together all aspects of learning to solve a practical problem and look at alternatives. While regular coursework allow students to acquire engineering and scientific knowledge, only project work gives them the opportunity to become a problem solver or an innovator. Hence, project work is a very important constituent of our engineering technology curriculum. For an engineer in industry, a project is a sequence of tasks required to reach an objective. Typically, the objective is to design a device or process that has value to a customer (user). The project begins by defining a performance problem associated with an application and ends with a design solution. The problem drives the learning required to complete the project. Managing the project requires the engineer to demonstrate effective teamwork, clear communication and the ability to balance the social, economic and environmental impacts of the project. Project-based learning (PBL) is based on the practice of solving problems. Traditionally, the educational process involves students first learning the fundamentals and then utilizing “total recall” to apply these facts to solve a problem; learning objectives are set by the instructor and principles are presented to the students through lectures. Moreover, this approach provides a context that makes learning the fundamentals more relevant and, hence, results in better retention by students. For clarity, we view problem-based learning as pertaining to the development of knowledge based on the fundamental principles of science and mathematics and project-based learning to include mastering the engineering skills required to implement a design solution. T