3D vision guidance technology: industrial revolution that realizes the breakthrough of 0.1mm precision in automatic gripping of copper sheet and strip

2025-03-14

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In the rapid development of industrial automation today, the 

metal processing industry is facing the double challenge of 

efficiency and precision. Especially in the field of copper strip 

production, the traditional mechanical gripping is limited by 

positioning errors, lack of flexibility and other issues, it is 

difficult to meet the demand for high-precision, high-tempo 

processing. The breakthrough application of 3D vision guidance

 technology has successfully improved the automatic gripping 

accuracy of copper strip to 0.1mm level, marking the new era 

of millimeter-level precision control in intelligent manufacturing.

A technological breakthrough: from “mechanical 

blind gripping” to “intelligent perception” of the leap

The traditional copper strip gripping mostly relies on fixed program control 

robotic arm, the face of the incoming material position offset, strip 

deformation and other working conditions, the actual gripping error is 

often more than ± 2mm, resulting in the subsequent stamping, bending 

process high scrap rate. 3D vision guidance system through three core 

technologies to achieve subversive upgrades:

High-precision point cloud modeling: using laser line scanning and multimetric

 vision fusion technology, generating more than 500,000 point cloud data per 

second, real-time construction of three-dimensional profile model of the 

plate and strip, with a resolution of 0.01mm thickness detection;

Dynamic position solving: based on deep learning algorithm, sub-millimeter 

analysis of the edge curvature and surface flatness of the strip is completed 

within 0.2 seconds, and the optimal gripping path is automatically generated;

Adaptive compensation mechanism: through the force control sensor and 

visual feedback closed loop, dynamically correct the end attitude of the 

robotic arm, eliminate vibration, temperature deformation and other 

interference, to ensure that the gripping accuracy is stabilized within ± 0.1mm.

This technology makes the production line compatible with the mixed 

flow production of copper plates and strips with different thicknesses of 

0.1-6mm, shortening the changeover time from 30 minutes to 5 seconds,

 and increasing the equipment utilization rate by 40%.

Second, application scenarios: cracking 

the four core pain points of metal processing

In the whole process of copper strip processing, 3D vision guidance 

technology is reconstructing the production paradigm:

1. Raw material loading

Traditional manual palletizing efficiency is low and easy to scratch the 

board surface, 3D vision system can identify the interlayer gap and edge 

alignment of the stacked strip, and guide the robotic arm to complete 

the gripping with 0.1mm repeatable positioning accuracy, avoiding 

double-sheet gripping accidents caused by interlayer adhesion, and 

reducing the loss rate of raw materials by 90%.

2. Stamping molding station

For the alignment problem of stamping mold and strip, the system 

compares CAD model and physical point cloud data in real time, 

dynamically compensates for the deformation error of the sheet 

after stretching, so that the deviation of the punching position is 

controlled at ±0.08mm and the life of the mold is extended by 3 times.

3. Defect detection process

Integration of hyperspectral imaging technology, simultaneous detection 

of oxidation spots, scratches and other micron-level defects in the 

gripping process, the detection speed of 3m/s, compared with the 

efficiency of manual visual inspection increased by 20 times, the 

leakage rate reduced to less than 0.5%.

4. Finished product sorting and warehousing

Through 3D vision + RFID technology, automatic identification of 

different batches, specifications of finished products, to achieve 

24-hour unmanned sorting into the warehouse, warehouse density

 increased by 60%, out of the warehouse accuracy rate of 100%.

Third, the impact of the industry: promote 

copper processing into the “zero-defect 

manufacturing” era

According to industry estimates, the large-scale application of 3D 

vision guidance system can bring multi-dimensional value for 

copper strip processing enterprises:

Quality upgrade: the improvement of gripping precision makes 

the product size pass rate jump from 92% to 99.8%, and the yield 

rate of high-end electronic copper foil exceeds 99.9%;

Cost optimization: after reducing manual intervention, a single 

production line saves more than 800,000 yuan in labor costs every 

year, and the value of scrap recycling increases by 2 million yuan;

Energy consumption control: precise gripping avoids ineffective 

empty stroke, equipment energy consumption is reduced by 25%, 

carbon emission is reduced by 15%;

Flexible production: support for small quantities of customized 

orders for rapid switching, delivery cycle compressed to 1/3 of 

the traditional model.

A large copper processing base of measured data shows that 

after the deployment of 3D vision system, its annual output 

of 50,000 tons of copper sheet and strip production line

integrated efficiency (OEE) from 68% to 89%, annual efficiency 

gains of 32 million yuan.

Fourth, the future trend: 3D vision and 

industrial meta-universe depth of integration

With the maturity of 5G and digital twin technology, 3D vision 

guidance system is evolving from stand-alone intelligence to

 full-link synergy:

Cloud synergy: compression of vision data processing time to within 

50ms through edge computing, supporting real-time synchronization 

of data from thousands of devices;

Self-learning evolution: building process knowledge graph, the system 

can autonomously optimize the grasping strategy based on historical 

data, and the iteration cycle is shortened by 70%;

Virtual commissioning: previewing the grasping scheme on the digital 

twin platform, which reduces the commissioning cycle of a new 

production line from 2 months to 1 week.

Experts predict that by 2028, the global market size of 3D vision in 

the field of metal processing will exceed 12 billion U.S. dollars, of 

which the proportion of high-precision gripping applications of 

copper sheet and strip accounts for more than 35%, and become 

the core engine to drive the upgrading of intelligent manufacturing.

Conclusion

The breakthrough of 0.1mm precision is not only a leap in technical 

parameters, but also represents the qualitative change of industrial 

automation from “function realization” to “ultimate optimization”.

 3D vision guidance technology is redefining the standard paradigm 

of copper strip production, injecting new intelligent and precise 

technologies into the metal processing industry. 3D vision guidance

 technology is redefining the standard paradigm of copper strip

 production, injecting new kinetic energy of intelligence and 

precision into the metal processing industry. Driven by “Industry 4.0” 

and “Double Carbon Goal”, this production revolution triggered by 

visual perception will continue to release the multiplier effect of cost 

reduction and efficiency increase, and boost China's manufacturing 

to the high end of the global value chain.