Introduction
Welded metal assemblies are crucial in various industries, including precision mechanical structures, automotive components, and industrial housings. Ensuring the quality of 90° or other angled weld joints is essential due to their impact on structural integrity and reliability. Reliable inspection methods are necessary for corner weld seams, welded brackets, sheet metal assemblies, and structural weld connections to detect defects early and maintain consistent quality.

Inspection Challenges
Traditional machine vision systems face challenges in inspecting 90° weld seams due to complex 3D geometry, changing metal surface reflectance, strong shadows, and irregular weld bead structures. These systems often fail to detect subtle defects, leading to reliance on subjective manual inspections.

Technology Principle
The solino RTI sensor employs BRDF-based computational imaging to detect weld surface structures that conventional imaging misses. It captures 64 images under various illumination directions, reconstructing surface reflectance information. Key features include multi-directional LED illumination, photometric stereo image capture, and computational defect enhancement, creating a stable inspection environment.

Technology Benefits
Solino enhances the visibility of surface anomalies on metallic weld seams, such as cracks, pores, inclusions, undercuts, incomplete fusions, spatter, burrs, and geometry deviations. It is particularly effective on metallic surfaces where traditional vision systems struggle.

Application
The solino 10×10 RTI sensor inspects welded assemblies post-welding or during final quality checks. It enhances contrast to reveal defects in corner weld seams, welded brackets, structural joints, weld bead transitions, and surface finishes.

Solution Architecture
The system includes a solino RTI sensor with 64 LED dome illumination, a high-resolution 20 MP camera, and solinoStudio software for image acquisition and processing. The compact design allows easy integration into automated systems. The workflow involves positioning the component, capturing images, reconstructing weld surface reflectance, and visualizing the structure with solinoStudio.

Conclusion
The solino RTI sensor combines controlled illumination with computational imaging to detect difficult weld surface structures, enabling reliable automated inspection of 90° weld seams. This supports manufacturers in improving weld quality, reducing inspection variability, and ensuring consistent product reliability. Additional image processing and AI options are available upon request.