Apparatus and method for inspecting a component.

摘要

A component (12) for dimensional inspection is rotated against a contrasting background while being scanned by an optical scanner (14) comprising a straight line array of sensors (18). The scanner resolution is sufficiently high to ensure that its output defines a linear dimension of the component (12) which contrasts strongly with its background. By rotating the scanner (14) (or the component (12)) a series of straight line scans is obtained. Given a recorded scan for an intolerance component it is possible to scan subsequent similar components and reject those with an out of tolerance scan or scans.