Research and application of visual location technology for solder paste printing based on machine vision

A location system is very important for solder paste printing in the process of surface mount technology (SMT). Using machine vision technology to complete the location mission is new and very efficient. This paper presents an integrated visual location system for solder paste printing based on machine vision. The working principle of solder paste printing is introduced and then the design and implementation of the visual location system are described. In the system, two key techniques are completed by secondary development based on VisionPro. One is accurate image location solved by the pattern-based location algorithms of PatMax. The other one is camera calibration that is achieved by image warping technology through the checkerboard plate. Moreover, the system can provide good performances such as high image locating accuracy with 1/40 sub-pixels, high anti-jamming, and high-speed location of objects whose appearance is rotated, scaled, and/or stretched.