Industrial cameras are just one component on the way to a complete machine vision solution. The market offers a wide range of components and suppliers, all of which need to be tested, procured, integrated, wired, serviced, and replaced if discontinued. A new camera concept from a manufacturer is taking a different approach: offering one highly integrated component that optimally matches each other, with IP67 protection. The goal is to make machine vision much easier.

Image acquisition involves not only technological complexity but also challenges in procurement, integration, installation, system costs, and long-term availability. As a result, smart solutions in image acquisition with a single hardware component, similar to smart vision, are an appealing idea. Image processing runs on a conventional high-performance PC, providing all degrees of freedom, including optimal software selection or even company-specific software use.

Smart vision applications demonstrate that all-in-one solutions often provide an appropriate compromise. Baumer is now applying this approach to PC systems to combine simplicity, performance, and flexibility. The main advantage of this concept is that mounting and image acquisition are as simple as with vision sensors, while powerful evaluation is handled by PC systems.
 

New Product Class Enables Easy Installation Without Expert Know-How

The Baumer IXG is an all-in-one camera that integrates an image sensor, lens (6, 8, or 16 mm), autofocus, and white LED lighting in a compact IP67 housing with a 5 cm edge length. Display and LEDs provide user-friendly setup and operation. The IP67 design is compatible with common photoelectric sensors without requiring complex enclosures.

The major benefit of a closed system is the simple installation of a single, tested component that is less prone to errors, even without expert know-how. Entire parameterization via GigE Vision commands protects against unauthorized lens access, enables protected installation, and provides the basis for tracking any changes made, ensuring high-level process safety.

The GigE Vision interface opens the door to the world of camera systems, image processing PCs, and software. This enables the use of high-performance PCs for image processing with high flexibility. Multi-camera systems or additional cameras as retrofits are quickly and easily implemented.
 

Compact Integration of Lighting and Electromechanical Autofocus

Segmentable lighting for optimal illumination supports applications up to a 1,000 mm operating distance. The control of external specialized lighting offers better flexibility in applications. The electromechanical autofocus is designed to be thermally insensitive for long-term stable focusing. It simplifies initial setup and supports changing distances in different production batches. It is not intended for applications with short-term focus on individual objects, which are reserved for liquid lenses.

The optional polarization filter suppresses reflections from shiny objects made of metal or foil for improved evaluation reliability. The IXG is suitable for varied applications across all industries, such as quality inspection, presence and completeness checks, or identification. The all-electrical configuration used with appropriate software allows for parameter logging, as required, for example, in the pharmaceutical industry.

The compact, space-saving design ensures a small system footprint, important for machines in clean rooms. Besides OEM, the camera is ideal for system upgrades like track & trace retrofits in positioning tasks in the pharmaceutical and food industries.
 

PC Performance and Smart Vision Simplicity Combined

Image processing requires a PC with third-party PC-based software. This enables broad scalability in terms of flexibility and evaluation speed, including AI processing power. The free choice of software opens up many possibilities, application-specific user interfaces, backup solutions, access rights, logging, and deep integration into own commands. This is supported by the IXG hardware since every change in configuration is made in the form of commands.

This concept becomes even more interesting when an existing application has already been implemented using a PC and now needs to be expanded. A typical use case involves an additional Track & Trace task in the form of object detection at a specific position with a Datamatrix code. In this application, IXG adds like a satellite and becomes an integral part of the application via GigE Vision. The existing Vision PC is used, and identification utilizes the existing user interface or software. It may be possible to use existing software licenses, which is economical under several aspects.
 

Limiting Factors

Of course, the compact design and selected components have their pros and cons. Thanks to the compact dimensions, IXG fits into installation spaces that were previously too tight for GigE Vision cameras and lighting. Lighting is limited by the front surface. A limiting factor is using polarizing filters that absorb 75 percent of light and the shortest exposure time. Here, workarounds such as tilting the camera without a filter or additional lighting should be considered. The technology, which differs from other Baumer cameras, cannot quite keep up with their values in terms of trigger delay and jitter, which is not critical for many applications but should nevertheless be taken into consideration.

Overall, the IXG cameras add a mainstream solution to the Baumer portfolio. Where appropriate, users are provided with the mentioned benefits. Where not appropriate, the Baumer portfolio provides alternative solutions.
 

PC Performance and Smart Vision Simplicity Combined

The cameras of the Baumer IX series are capable of many mainstream applications. They bridge the gap between high-performance PC systems and smart vision cameras. Users benefit from a compact, space-saving design that combines high performance with the simplicity of smart vision systems. This results in reduced image acquisition efforts, shorter time-to-market, and freed-up in-house development resources for core tasks.

In summary, the Baumer IX series offers a versatile and efficient solution for machine vision applications, reducing complexity and increasing flexibility while maintaining high performance. As a result, these cameras can significantly streamline image acquisition processes and enhance the overall efficiency of machine vision systems.