Tsingcarbo® Light-Absorbing Film Solves AOI Conveyor Roller Reflection for Cover Glass

Project Background

In the automated production process of 3C cover glass, AOI (Automatic Optical Inspection) is the core process for controlling product appearance quality. High-precision visual inspection systems have strict requirements for imaging environments—weak stray light and local reflection can easily cause image overexposure, leading to misjudgment and omission of defects, which directly restrict the yield and detection stability of the production line. Recently, a cover glass manufacturing enterprise encountered a typical optical interference problem in the operation of AOI inspection equipment. By adopting Tsingcarbo® light-absorbing film from Suzhou Tsingcarbo Nano Materials Co., Ltd., the enterprise successfully solved the roller reflection pain point, significantly improved detection accuracy, and took into account the convenience and economy of later operation and maintenance.

Project Pain Points: Conveyor Roller Reflection Interferes with AOI Imaging, Traditional Solutions Have Prominent Shortcomings

The customer’s production line is equipped with fully automatic cover glass AOI inspection equipment, which relies on metal rollers to transport glass workpieces. After the visual inspection light source is turned on, the surface of the metal rollers produces strong reflected light, forming continuous stray light interference. The reflected light spots superimpose on the images collected by the camera, covering tiny defects such as fine scratches and point impurities on the glass surface. On the one hand, this causes a large number of invalid false alarms, increasing the workload of manual review; on the other hand, it is prone to defect omission, posing a risk of defective products flowing out, which seriously affects production efficiency and product quality control.

The customer initially considered two traditional light-absorbing solutions: vacuum coating and spray matte paint. After on-site evaluation, both solutions have obvious shortcomings. Vacuum coating requires the overall disassembly of the rollers for off-site processing, with a long shutdown cycle and large production line losses; the hardness of the coating layer is limited, and the surface layer is easily worn and falls off due to the continuous load-bearing rolling of the rollers, resulting in high later maintenance costs. Spray matte paint has cumbersome construction procedures, requiring masking, spraying, and long-term curing; after the coating is formed, it has strong rigidity, the paint film on the curved surface of the rollers is uneven in thickness, and it peels off and chips after operating friction. The fallen debris will contaminate the cover glass, bringing new quality risks. More importantly, both processes are one-time processing, which cannot be quickly repaired after later wear and can only be reprocessed, resulting in high maintenance costs and being completely unsuitable for the roller working conditions of continuous load-bearing and curved dynamic friction.

Solution: Cladding Tsingcarbo® Light-Absorbing Film on Roller Surface to Solve Reflection Problem Conveniently and Efficiently

After sample comparison, the customer selected Tsingcarbo® high-performance light-absorbing film from Suzhou Tsingcarbo Nano Materials Co., Ltd., which was directly attached to the surface of the conveyor rollers of AOI equipment. Relying on the nano light-trapping structure, this film can efficiently absorb incident light, suppress the mirror reflection of rollers from the source, eliminate stray light interference, and provide a clear and stable imaging environment for AOI inspection.

The on-site implementation process is convenient, without the need for large-scale equipment disassembly. Staff can cut the film according to the size of the rollers, directly wrap and fit the curved surface, and put it into use, which greatly shortens the transformation period and reduces production line shutdown losses. After the film is attached, the glare and light spots on the AOI imaging screen disappear significantly, the image signal-to-noise ratio is improved, the camera can stably identify micron-level appearance defects on the glass surface, the false detection rate is greatly reduced, the operational stability of the detection system is fully verified, and the reflection interference problem that has plagued the customer for a long time is perfectly solved.

Core Advantages of the Material: Suitable for Dynamic Load-Bearing Working Conditions, Taking into Account Consumable Attributes and Convenient Maintenance

1. Pressure and Wear Resistant, Suitable for Continuous Rolling Load-Bearing Scenarios

Different from conventional optical light-absorbing materials, Tsingcarbo® light-absorbing film has excellent wear and pressure resistance, can withstand the continuous pressure and reciprocating friction of cover glass for a long time, the surface layer is not easy to wear and fall off, and maintains a stable light-absorbing effect after long-term operation. Its service life is far superior to paint films and ordinary flocked materials, adapting to the harsh working conditions of roller dynamic load-bearing.

2. Outstanding Flexibility, Perfectly Fitting Curved Components

The film substrate has excellent flexibility, can closely fit the outer curved surface of the rollers, no warping or hollowing after fitting, completely solving the industry problem that coating and spray painting are difficult to uniformly cover curved surfaces, adapting to the transformation needs of various diameter rollers without additional adjustment of the equipment structure.

3. Prominent Consumable Attributes, Convenient and Economical Later Maintenance

Tsingcarbo® light-absorbing film can be used as a consumable for a long time. After long-term load-bearing friction, if local wear and reduced light-absorbing effect occur, the old film can be directly peeled off, the residual adhesive layer on the roller surface can be wiped with organic solvents such as alcohol, and the new light-absorbing film can be reattached after cleaning. The entire replacement process does not require professional equipment or outsourced processing, can be completed quickly on site, greatly reducing later maintenance costs and shutdown time, with significant cost performance advantages compared with the one-time processing mode of traditional processes. At the same time, the film has a dense structure, no risk of powder falling off, meeting the clean production requirements of the cover glass workshop and causing no secondary pollution to the product.

Application Summary

This case fully confirms that Tsingcarbo® light-absorbing film provides a lightweight, cost-effective new solution for stray light suppression of dynamic curved components in the machine vision industry. For light-absorbing scenarios that are difficult for traditional processes, such as AOI conveyor rollers, guide rollers, and curved tooling, this film combines efficient optical light-absorbing performance, excellent mechanical wear resistance, and curved surface adaptability. Meanwhile, with the convenient consumable-based maintenance mode, it effectively makes up for the application shortcomings of vacuum coating and matte spray paint.

In the future, in the fields of cover glass, optical lenses, display panel AOI inspection, and precision optical equipment stray light control, flexible light-absorbing films will become the preferred solution for equipment upgrading and transformation. Suzhou Tsingcarbo Nano Materials Co., Ltd. continues to deeply cultivate the research and development of nano light-absorbing materials, providing customized light-absorbing film materials for machine vision, optical instruments, and precision detection industries, helping enterprises solve various stray light interference problems, and improving production efficiency and product quality.