Adhesive overflow into motor clearances
Adhesive inspection in motor assembly should check both the intended bead and the regions that must remain clear. Reject the functional-zone violation.
Line solution
Test this on your samplesGlue bead inspection for adhesive and sealant
// Short answer
Glue bead inspection is a camera check of a freshly dispensed adhesive or sealant bead, before the parts are joined: it finds gaps, thin and wide sections and beads off their path, and with a 3D laser profiler it measures bead height. addaScan builds it on a HIKROBOT area camera or a HIKROBOT DP-series profiler with HIKROBOT VisionMaster. It checks geometry, not bond strength. An indicative installed budget for a typical application is R 230 000 – R 1 590 000 excluding VAT.
// At a glance
The station in three lines
- Faults caught
- Gaps and skips in the bead, thin or wide sections, bead off its path, low bead height (3D)
- Configuration
- 2D camera and ring light over a fixed part, or a DP-series 3D laser profiler moved along the bead
- Line link
- Pass, fail and failed bead section to the cell PLC; rework before joining
// Fit & limits
What this station will not do, and what it needs
What it will not do
- Bond strength and cure: the camera checks the bead’s geometry, not whether the adhesive will bond or has cured.
- Seal tightness: a complete bead is not a leak test; sealed assemblies still need one where the product calls for it.
- Hidden beads: a bead already covered by a part, or deep in a channel the camera cannot see into, is not checked.
- Clear glue in 2D: transparent adhesive without a UV tracer may not show in 2D; 3D height is then needed.
What makes it work
- Inspect before joining: the station sits between the dispenser and the joining step.
- A repeatable part position: a fixture, or the robot’s known position for every part.
- Contrast or height: a bead colour that differs from the part, a UV tracer, or the 3D option.
- Samples: parts with good beads and with the gaps and thin sections you actually see.
// On South African lines
Dispensed beads on South African assembly lines, and what a camera can prove
Adhesives and sealants are dispensed on assembly lines across component and appliance manufacturing in South Africa. Automotive component exports reached R61 168m in 2025 (naamsa, 2026), and Arçelik, the owner of Defy, reports a refrigerating appliance plant at Ezakheni and a cooking, dryer and washing machine plant at Jacobs in Durban (Arçelik, 2023). Appliance plants in South Africa include adhesive and sealant application steps on their assembly lines, which is where a bead inspection station sits.
There is no South African rule for bead inspection; the requirement is the product’s own drawing and the customer’s quality plan. A bead with a gap, a thin section or a skip at a corner is cheap to fix before the parts are joined and costly once the joint is closed. Sealant bead inspection and adhesive bead inspection put a camera between the dispenser and the joining step so every part is checked while the bead is still visible.
What a camera can prove is geometry: the bead is there, unbroken, the right width, in the right place and, in 3D, the right height. It does not prove that the adhesive will bond or has cured, and a complete sealant bead is not a leak test. HIKROBOT shows glue-application inspection on a motor assembly line, and O-ring oiling checked by 2D, 2.5D and 3D methods, in cases on its Chinese site (HIKROBOT CN cases); these are vendor cases with no bead figures.
What the line reports, and what the bead check covers
| What the line reports | What a station checks | Where it stops |
|---|---|---|
| “The bead had a skip where the nozzle blocked” | Bead present along the whole taught path; every gap is found and its position on the part reported. | A bead covered by a part placed before the check, or inside a deep channel, is not seen. |
| “It’s too thin in places and squeezes out in others” | Bead width measured at intervals along the path in 2D; height and cross-section along the path with the 3D profiler. | In 2D only width is measured; volume needs the 3D option, and then it is a calculated cross-section. |
| “The bead ran off the flange” | Bead position relative to the part edges along the path. | The part has to be located the same way each time, by a fixture or the robot’s known position. |
| “We can’t see the clear glue at all” | Under UV light an adhesive with a fluorescent tracer glows and the part stays dark; without a tracer, the 3D profiler finds the bead by its height. | Clear glue with no tracer on a similar-coloured surface is not reliable in 2D. |
| “Parts come back with failed joints or leaks” | Every bead is checked before joining, and the image is stored against the part, so missing or thin beads stop at the cell. | A good-looking bead does not prove bond strength, cure or sealing; those need their own tests. |
// The complete solution
Glue bead inspection station: 2D or 3D, software and installation
The 2D station looks down on a part held still in a fixture after dispensing and follows the bead along its taught path. The 3D station moves a laser profiler along the bead, on a linear axis or on your dispensing robot, and measures height as well as width. Either way the PLC sends a failed part to rework before it is joined.
[Schematic]Plan view, not to scale
Swipe sideways to see the whole drawing →
[1]: The fixture or the robot signals that the part is ready to check.
[2]: A mono camera with a ring light checks presence, gaps, width and position from above.
[3]: In the high case a DP-series laser profiler scans bead height along the path.
[4]: The axis or robot encoder tells the profiler where each profile was taken.
[5]: A part with a failed bead goes to rework before it is joined.
Hardware
| Component | HIKROBOT example | Role in this station |
|---|---|---|
| Camera (2D) | HIKROBOT MV-CS060-10GM 6 MP mono GigE camera with an MVL-HF2524M-10MP lens | Sees the whole bead path from above for presence, gaps, width and position |
| Lighting | HIKROBOT MV-LRDS-H-160-00-W ring light; a UV light where the adhesive carries a fluorescent tracer (HIKROBOT’s catalogue lists a UV365 bar-light wavelength; orderability confirmed per project) | Contrast between the bead and the part |
| 3D laser profiler (high case) | HIKROBOT DP3000-series 3D laser profiler, MV-DP3060-01H (the DP3000 series is IP67 with a differential encoder input) | Scans bead height and cross-section along the path |
| Processing | HIKROBOT VC3000 vision controller (MV-VC3302P-128G60 for 2D; MV-VC3704H-128G60 for 3D) with HIKROBOT VisionMaster | Runs the bead recipe; with the 2.5D licence, works on height data |
| Motion (high case) | Not HIKROBOT: linear axis, or a mount on your dispensing robot, with an encoder | Moves the profiler along the bead and gives the position of every profile |
| Mount, panel and screen | Local supply: camera mount, panel and operator screen | Holds the view fixed over the fixture; shows which section of bead failed |
Software and vision tools
| Tool or software | What it does here |
|---|---|
| HIKROBOT VisionMaster 2D edge and defect tools | Follow the bead along its taught path, measure width and position at set intervals and flag gaps. |
| VisionMaster 3D (VM3D) or 3DMVS | Turn the profiler data into a height map and measure bead height and cross-section along the path. |
| UV fluorescence imaging | For adhesives with a UV tracer the bead glows under UV light and the part stays dark, which HIKROBOT’s light catalogue gives as a use of UV light. |
| Recipe per part and bead path | Path, nominal width, height and limits per part number, selected by the PLC. |
| Result and image log | Pass or fail per section of bead, with the image or height map, stored against the part or serial. |
Installation and integration
01
Mounting and enclosure
Camera or profiler mounted clear of the dispensing nozzle and its drips, with a cover the operator can wipe; the profiler kept out of the robot’s collision zone.
02
Lighting and shrouding
A ring light for dark glue on bright metal, a UV light for traced adhesive, and a shroud so plant light does not wash out the bead edge.
03
Trigger and tracking
The fixture or robot signals the part is ready; for 3D the axis or robot encoder drives the profiler, so every profile has its position on the path.
04
PLC link
Pass, fail and failed bead section by digital I/O from the VC3000 controller to the cell PLC; images to a PC or MES over Ethernet.
05
Reject and confirmation
A failed part is routed to rework before joining and must be cleared there; if the check did not run, the part is treated as failed, not passed.
06
Recipes and operator screen
A recipe per part and bead path, chosen by the PLC; the screen shows the bead with the failed sections marked.
// Indicative cost in South Africa
What this station costs, excluding VAT
Indicative budget for a typical application of this kind. Every project involves custom requirements (your products, line speed, layout, PLC and acceptance criteria), so the final price differs from case to case. A firm price follows the sample test.
- Low
- R 230 000
- 2D, one camera
- High
- R 1 590 000
- 3D profiler on an axis or robot
- Basis
- Typical application of this kind, indicative
- South African rand, excluding VAT
- Prices as at 2 October 2026
- Travel (Gauteng): outside Gauteng quoted separately
// Included and excluded
The low figure is a 2D station: one camera and ring light following a fixed bead path on a part held still, checking presence, gaps, width and position. The high figure is a 3D laser profiler moved along the bead by a linear axis or your robot, with an encoder and the 2.5D licence, measuring width, height and gaps. 3D work sits outside the standard ranges on the cost guide and is therefore priced here separately. A UV light for traced adhesive is not in either figure. The dispenser, the robot, fixtures, utilities and VAT are excluded.
Hardware is priced from public list prices converted at the ECB reference rate, plus freight, clearance and margin; engineering at R 900 – R 1 300 per hour. How these ranges are built →
Swipe the table sideways to see the high figure and the basis →
| Cost block | Low | High | Basis |
|---|---|---|---|
| Vision hardware (landed, with margin) | R 65 400 | R 685 900 | Low: one 6 MP mono camera, lens, ring light, VC3000 controller. High: DP3000-series 3D laser profiler and a larger VC3000 controller |
| Software licence | R 33 800 | R 167 400 | HIKROBOT VisionMaster standard licence; high case with the 2.5D tier for height data |
| Local materials and reject | R 30 000 | R 150 000 | Low: mount, cabling, trigger. High: linear axis or robot mount (your robot assumed available), encoder, panel and operator screen |
| Engineering (recipes, PLC link) | R 63 000 | R 312 000 | 70 h at R 900 to 240 h at R 1 300 |
| Installation, FAT, SAT, training, documents | R 28 800 | R 124 800 | 32 h to 96 h |
| Project management | R 14 400 | R 62 400 | 16 h to 48 h |
| Travel (Gauteng) | R 3 000 | R 8 000 | Outside Gauteng quoted separately |
| Total (rounded) | R 230 000 | R 1 590 000 | Low: 2D, one camera. High: 3D profiler on an axis or robot |
// Related technology
Which technologies this scenario uses, and why
The technologies behind this station, how much each matters here, and where each is explained in depth.
| Technology | Role | Why it matters in this scenario | Read more |
|---|---|---|---|
| Area scan cameras with a vision controller | Core | On most beads with visible contrast, one 2D camera covers presence, gaps, width and position in a single image. | Camera and lens selection |
| 3D laser profiling | Core | Bead height and cross-section exist only in height data; a 3D laser profiler scans them along the path. | Dimensional inspection |
| Lighting technique | Core | Bead contrast decides the 2D case: dark glue on bright metal under a ring light, or traced glue under UV light. | Machine vision lighting |
| HIKROBOT VisionMaster tools | Supporting | VisionMaster tools follow a taught path and measure along it; VM3D does the same on height data. | VisionMaster algorithm tools |
| PLC link and reject with confirmation | Supporting | A failed bead is cheap to fix before joining; the PLC routes the part to rework and does not pass an unchecked one. | PLC and reject integration |
// Acceptance
How the station is proven before handover
Every station is accepted on your products, against numbers agreed in writing before the build. How we deliver →
01
Sample test
Parts with good beads and with the faults you see (gaps, thin sections, beads off the path), imaged in 2D and, where height matters, scanned with the profiler; the result says whether 2D is enough or 3D is needed.
02
FAT with challenge parts
Before delivery, a marked set of parts with a gap, a thin section and an off-path bead at agreed places must each fail, with the fault located, and good parts must pass.
03
SAT on the line
In your cell, at production cycle time, the challenge parts are run again, and false fails and escapes are counted over an agreed run of production.
// FAQ
Questions about glue bead inspection
How does a glue bead inspection machine with a camera work?
After dispensing, the part stops in a fixture or is held by the robot. A camera looks at the bead and VisionMaster follows it along the taught path, measuring width and position at set intervals and flagging any gap. With a 3D laser profiler moved along the bead, height and cross-section are measured too. A part that fails goes to rework before it is joined.
How much does glue bead inspection cost in South Africa?
An indicative installed budget is R 230 000 – R 1 590 000 excluding VAT, at 2 October 2026 prices. The low figure is a 2D station with one camera on a part held still; the high figure is a HIKROBOT 3D laser profiler moved along the bead by a linear axis or your robot, with the 2.5D licence. Both include engineering, installation, FAT and SAT in Gauteng. A firm price follows a sample test on your parts. This is a typical application: every project involves custom requirements, so the final price depends on your products, line and acceptance criteria.
Does bead inspection prove the adhesive will hold?
No. A camera checks the geometry of the bead: that it is there, unbroken, the right width, in the right place and, in 3D, the right height. Bond strength, cure and adhesion to the surface depend on the adhesive, the surface preparation and the process, and are proven by your own tests. A complete sealant bead is also not a leak test.
When do we need a 3D laser profiler instead of a 2D camera?
When height or cross-section matters, or when the bead does not contrast with the part. A 2D camera measures width and position well where the bead is a different colour from the part or glows under UV light. A thin bead that is wide enough, a bead that has slumped, or clear glue on a grey part are found by height, which only a profiler gives.
Can the bead be checked while the robot is dispensing?
The stations on this page check the bead after dispensing, before joining. A profiler can be mounted on your robot to scan the bead on a second pass, which the high budget assumes. Controlling the dispenser from the vision result during dispensing is the dispenser and robot supplier’s scope, not something addaScan builds.
Sources
- Arçelik Annual Report 2023 (Defy plants at Ezakheni and Jacobs, South Africa) (company annual report, checked 2026-10-02)
- naamsa Automotive Trade Manual 2026 (component exports 2025) (industry report, checked 2026-10-02)
- HIKROBOT automotive industry cases on the Chinese site (glue-application inspection; O-ring oiling by 2D, 2.5D and 3D) (vendor case list (Chinese site), checked 2026-10-02)
- HIKROBOT MV-DP3120-01P 3D laser profile sensor (DP3000 series: encoder trigger, IP67, 3DMVS and VM3D) (vendor product page, checked 2026-10-02)
- HIKROBOT Light Source Catalog 2025Q3, p.80: UV fluorescence to detect UV glue (vendor catalogue, checked 2026-10-02)
- HIKROBOT at VisionChina 2023: DP2060 profiler on sealing-ring defects (vendor news, checked 2026-10-02)
Related:
// Next step
Send us parts with good beads and bad ones
Describe the line, the products and the fault. We test on your good and faulty samples and reply with a feasibility note and a budget.