Nikon announces LuFact ultra-compact machine vision camera

Nikon today announced the release of a new ultra-compact machine vision camera, LuFact to help accelerate the digital transformation (DX) at manufacturing sites. LuFact leverages decades of Nikon digital camera technology and innovation. In addition to capturing images with superior sensitivity and resolution, its ultra-compact design and high-speed processing markedly improves operations and efficiency to support the digital transformation at manufacturing sites.

The ultra-compact LuFact design was achieved by separating the camera head that captures images from the interface conversion unit (I/F conversion unit) that performs image processing. This efficient design enables easy installation onto existing equipment, production lines, robot hands and many other varied applications. The ability to install the camera head and I/F conversion unit separately can reduce heating in the existing machinery as well as production line.

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The LuFact camera head AH020-MR and I/F conversion unit A1000-G were developed by Nikon as part of the CR2project, which is being coordinated by Sony Semiconductor in their support for the conversion to smart factories. Placing the I/F conversion unit away from the camera head prevents the thermal shutdowns*4 of the unit caused by high ambient temperature around the camera head. This release includes LuFact products having two different types of camera heads, a high-sensitivity model and a high-resolution model, as well as two types of I/F conversion units featuring different transmission standards. It is possible to choose the camera heads according to the user’s requirements like with an interchangeable lens camera. The product name LuFact evolved from the phrase “Luminous Factory Camera” and describes a camera that dramatically improves manufacturing capabilities by bringing to light things that were previously not visible.   

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