Appearance inspection apparatus, surface treatment system, appearance inspection method, program and shot material replacement determination method

Abstract

An appearance inspection apparatus is intended to reduce overdetection of a defect in an appearance inspection. The appearance inspection apparatus in the surface treatment system images an inspection target Wk by an imaging part and includes a replacement determination part which determines that a shot material needs replacement in an ejector when the difference between the brightness level of an inspection target region in a captured image and the brightness level of a reference region in a reference image is a predetermined threshold or more. Thus, the determination of the replacement of the shot material is executed within a range allowing effective reduction of overdetection by the appearance inspection apparatus and thereby the appearance inspection apparatus is capable of reducing overdetection of the defect.

1 . An appearance inspection apparatus which inspects a surface of an inspection target subjected to surface treatment with a shot material, comprising:
 an imaging part which captures an image of the surface of the inspection target to acquire a captured image;   a storage which contains a reference image corresponding to the captured image;   a defect candidate detector which detects a defect candidate region in the captured image based on the captured image and the reference image; and   a replacement determination part which determines a necessity to replace the shot material based on a brightness level of an inspection target region in the captured image and a brightness level of a reference region in the reference image corresponding to the inspection target region.   
     
     
         2 . The appearance inspection apparatus according to  claim 1 , wherein the replacement determination part is configured to determine that the shot material needs replacement if a difference in brightness level between the inspection target region and the reference region is a predetermined threshold or more. 
     
     
         3 . The appearance inspection apparatus according to  claim 2 , further comprising a threshold determination part which determines the predetermined threshold based on the brightness level of the inspection target region in the captured image in which the defect candidate region has been detected by the defect candidate detector and information about whether the defect candidate region truly has a defect. 
     
     
         4 . The appearance inspection apparatus according to  claim 1 , wherein the replacement determination part is configured to output a shot material replacement signal if the replacement determination part determines that the shot material needs replacement. 
     
     
         5 . A surface treatment system, comprising:
 the appearance inspection apparatus according to  claim 4 ; and   an ejector which treats the surface of the inspection target with the shot material, wherein the ejector includes:   an ejection part which ejects the shot material to the inspection target while accelerating the shot material;   a shot material supplier which supplies the ejection part with the shot material;   a shot material collector which collects the shot material after being ejected from the ejection part and carries the shot material which is collected to the shot material supplier;   a shot material storage which contains the shot material primarily and supplies the shot material supplier with the shot material; and   a supply controller which controls supply of the shot material from the shot material storage to the shot material supplier, and   the supply controller supplies the shot material from the shot material storage to the shot material supplier in response to input of the shot material replacement signal.   
     
     
         6 . An appearance inspection method of inspecting a surface of an inspection target subjected to surface treatment with a shot material, comprising:
 a preparation step of preparing a captured image by capturing an image of the surface of the inspection target and a reference image corresponding to the captured image;   a defect candidate detection step of detecting a defect candidate region in the captured image based on the captured image and the reference image; and   a replacement determination step of determining a necessity to replace the shot material based on a brightness level of an inspection target region in the captured image and a brightness level of a reference region in the reference image corresponding to the inspection target region.   
     
     
         7 . (canceled) 
     
     
         8 . A shot material replacement determination method of determining the necessity to replace a shot material in an ejector, comprising:
 a preparation step of preparing a captured image by capturing an image of a surface of a treatment target subjected to treatment on the surface with the shot material and a reference image corresponding to the captured image; and   a replacement determination step of determining a necessity to replace the shot material based on a brightness level of an inspection target region in the captured image and a brightness level of a reference region in the reference image corresponding to the inspection target region.