Orange Peel

GKN Wheels and Structures has over the past 4 years embarked on a multi million pound investment in their Telford plant to a world class Off Highway wheel manufacturing site. This investment will increase capacity to circa 300k wheels per annum with increased complexity.The customers quality requirements are also increasing and with the cost, for example of a new tractor, in the region of £250k the cosmetic finish is of extreme importance.An area where considerable impact can happen is during the paint process. GKN use class leading e-coat finish to ensure maximum corrosion protection is given to the steel wheel but this is just one aspect. There can be other blemishes on the wheel, much more subjective than corrosion, which this project is aiming to address with automation.Along with our project partner, NPL (National Physics Laboratory), will develop the image processing algorithms required to perform defect detection and measurement, using the latest automation equipment.