We need to detect our product as it is dropped out of the machine that makes them.

At the end of the manufacturing process the KurlyTies which are held in a clamp are dropped into a bucket.

We can place a sensor or a camera that will see the KurlyTie as it falls.

A simple thru beam sensor does not work because the light beam is not interrupted for long enough to trigger a PLC input.

A full light curtain solution from Banner Engineering is several hundred dollars.

The KurlyTies are black and we can provide a solid white background for a video camera.

We can tell the sensor when to expect the part to drop.

If the video camera “sees” the part it should trigger a short output that will in turn tell our PLC that the part did drop.

We have some experience with UNO and think that the PIXY 2 might be a good option.

This seems like a very simple job for the vision system. It should work with the basic idea that “anything other than a plain white screen” will constitute a detected event.

Can you confirm?

Any thing else that you have come to mind?

Is there a single product solution?

Thanks in advance, I get quite confused trying to navigate the online forums.