The present invention discloses a device for the inspection of elements inside a fuse box. In particular, the present invention aims to verify the proper arrangement of the fuses inside the box and, consequently, their proper electrical connection.

In known devices, the fuses can be inserted into the boxes automatically or manually but, in both cases, errors in the insertion of components may occur, which would affect the operation of the boxes. Generally, the electrical components of a fuse box comprise at least one pair of metal tabs which are inserted into corresponding electrified slots, whereby said connection serves as a mechanical fastening of the component to the fuse box, while allowing the electrical continuity for the proper operation of the electronic / electrical components (fuses and relays, among others). The correct insertion of such components determines the proper operation of the fuse box, for example, in the electrical system of a vehicle.

During insertion of the components, errors such as any of the following may occur: the component is not fully inserted, the component is inserted sideways, the metal pins of the component have not been inserted between the metal tracks of the slot but laterally along only one, or the components are not inserted in the preset position, or that the components which have been inserted do not correspond to the position wherein they have been inserted.

Various techniques are known in the market for the inspection of the correct connection of elements comprising pins, such as fuses, to a baseplate or, in particular, to a fuse box.

One of the most used techniques is based on the use of stereoscopic vision to detect such faulty connections.

This technique involves the provision of at least two cameras at a given angle relative to each other. Subsequently, the data obtained by these cameras is processed to generate a three-dimensional model which, once received the images, requires the processing of the data obtained which are compared with a master model for faults.

This technique requires processing a lot of data and also requires very high definition cameras when the elements detected are small. Therefore, the computational cost to perform this technique is very high.

Another known technique is the use of a visible light beam that travels longitudinally or transversely along the fuse box at a given angle of incidence. Additionally, a camera for the reading of said beam is arranged and element layout errors are detected.

The main drawback of this technique is that some objects may not be detected by the device since the beam is incident from a certain angle, so there may be a shadow effect that prevents the light beam from reaching certain elements.

Another drawback of this technique is that some of the elements arranged in the fuse boxes produce a dispersion effect which at minimum reduces the accuracy of measurement when using this technique.

US patent documents US6577757B1 and US5408537A relate to the fields of image processing, pattern recognition, and machine vision. The documents describe a capture of images and a later process of said images such as scaling, color treatment, detecting defects in the image, taking account of polarity features, performing gamma correction or grayscale reduction.

In order to solve the problems presented by devices of the prior art, the present invention discloses a device for the inspection of elements inside a fuse box comprising the features of claim 1.

In particular embodiments of the present invention, the guide matrix comprises at least one row in a longitudinal direction of said tray. In addition, preferably, the guide matrix comprises at least one column in a transverse direction to said tray. Ultimately, the guide matrix can be a row matrix, a column matrix or it may comprise several rows and / or columns.

Preferably, the connection between the guide matrix and the wave generator comprises bearings and / or belts to facilitate movement of the wave generator between different points in the guide matrix. Said bearing and / or belt system can be replaced by magnetic means or may comprise a worm - spindle mechanism or any other means for moving a piece on a guide among those known in the prior art. Additionally, the wave reader may comprise coupling means to attach the wave reader to the wave generator, thus forming a single piece in which movement of the wave generator involves movement of the wave reader.

In one embodiment, the device of the invention comprises control means for controlling the displacement of the wave generator, said control means comprising, for example, a motor and a processor.

Regarding the wave generator, said wave generator can be a sound wave generator, electromagnetic generator, etc. Additionally, it may be an infrared laser or a laser of visible light. Said laser may also be a line laser so that with a single laser a larger area may be measured using a single laser and multiple light sensors.

Moreover, the present invention discloses a method for the inspection of elements in fuse boxes using the device described above, wherein the method comprises the steps of claim 12.

1. a) provision of a fuse box in the tray;
2. b) moving the wave generator along at least one of the rows or columns of the guide matrix;
3. c) performing simultaneously to the movement at least one reading of the

Another form of inspection may be performed using the present invention, wherein the user pre-set distance is a threshold distance, i.e., the allowed tolerance of differences between distances is below this threshold distance. In this regard, step c) of the method would involve the measurement of at least two distances corresponding to two points of the matrix guide and, step d) entails comparing the subtraction between these two distances with the pre-set distance or threshold distance.

To complement the analysis, each of the elements arranged in the fuse box may be checked as to verify suitability using an artificial vision system comprising a camera and digital image processing means.

These and other characteristics and advantages of the invention will be more readily apparent from the following detailed description of preferred embodiments, provided only by way of illustration and not in any way limiting the scope of the invention, with reference to the attached figures.

• Figure 1 shows a perspective view of a device according to the present invention.
• Figure 2 shows a front view of the device of Figure 1.
• Figure 3 shows a fuse box verifiable using the device of Figures 1 and 2.
• Figure 4 shows an example of a signal obtained after inspection of a first fuse box.
• Figure 5 shows a second example of a signal obtained after inspection of a second fuse box.

Figure 1 shows a preferred embodiment of a device (1) according to the present invention. For the sake of a better understanding of the present invention, Figure 1 discloses a device (1) comprising a single row guide matrix, however, the same concept can be extrapolated to embodiments with multiple rows and columns.

Specifically, Figure 1 shows a device (1) for the inspection of the elements disposed within a fuse box (2). This inspection is based primarily on the measurement of distances between elements and a reference point, so it can be determined, for example, if a fuse is properly connected to the junction box, if disconnected and even if there is no fuse in a given position.

To perform this inspection, the present invention has a generating and reading mechanism (10) for the generation and reading of waves, wherein said generating and reading mechanism (10) comprises a laser type wave generator, and a laser type wave reader (or a light sensor) which is arranged on a guide (100) so as to allow movement which, in this case, is a longitudinal movement along the fuse box (2). However, particular embodiments of the invention comprise several guides (100) which may be arranged so that the beam moves in both a longitudinal and transverse direction relative to the fuse box (2).

The method for determining the distance between the wave generator and the fuse box (2) is a widely known process in the prior art and is based on determining the time between signal generation and reception of the signal which bounces off the fuse and is read by the wave reader. By knowing the wave displacement time and speed data, the space covered by said wave is obtained.

Additionally, the input of the fuse boxes (2) to the device (1) is performed by a fuse box (2) conveyor (12) which may be, for example, a conveyor belt system.

Moreover, the device (1) object of the present invention has a display screen (11) which allows viewing the data corresponding to the measurements made.

Figure 2 shows a front view of the device (1) of Figure 1 further representing the capacity of the laser generation and reading mechanism (10) to move in a transverse direction relative to the fuse box (2).

Figure 3 schematically shows a form of operation of the device (1) object of the present invention.

This figure shows the fuse box (2) with multiple elements connected to it. Additionally shown is the laser generation and reading mechanism (10) which moves along the fuse box (2). In this embodiment, the laser generator may be a line laser to perform a measurement of all the elements through a single sweep.

Figure 4 shows an example of an inspection conducted using the device (1) of the present invention.

In particular, a first step (201) is observed corresponding to the inspection of a first element (21), and a second step (203) corresponding to the inspection of a second element (23), and through the inspection of these two first and second elements (21, 22) details that cannot be observed by known inspection techniques are obtained, such as, for example, the presence of a small projection in a space (22) existing between these two first and second elements. Said projection is determined by the presence of the peak (202) in the measurement.

Another reading example is shown in Figure 5. In particular, this figure depicts the presence of a third element (24), a fourth element (25) and a fifth element (26). As can be seen from inspection of these third (24), fourth (25) and fifth (26) elements, the third (24) element corresponds to a third step (204) wherein there is a distance between the generation and reading mechanism (10) and the third element (24) of less than 66.5 mm, the fourth element (25) corresponds to a fourth step (205) wherein there is a distance between the generation and reading mechanism (10) and the fourth element (25) of approximately 67 mm, and the fifth element (26) corresponds to a fifth step (206) wherein there is a distance between the generation and reading mechanism (10) and the fifth element (26) of approximately 68 mm. With these measurements if, for example, the user knows that with a distance under 70mm the fuse would not be properly connected to the fuse box (2), the inspection would imply that the third (24), fourth (25) and fifth (26) elements are not properly connected to the fuse box (2).

Therefore, the device (1) could generate an alarm, or show on a display screen the elements that are not properly connected and thus the user would conduct an inspection and manual repair.

Furthermore, in particular embodiments of the present invention, the graph resulting from the inspection procedure (for example, a graph like that shown in Figures 4 and 5) may be compared with a master graph showing how the elements should be arranged in the device (1). Thus it would be possible to determine, for example, if a given space should be free for a fuse and has been occupied.