Back to Michelson interferometer: a precise inspection system for industrial intricate structures defect detection

Abstract Quality inspection of injection molding products with intricate three-dimensional structures and diffuse reflection characteristics is a very important procedure in industrial production. However, the current inspection process for these products still heavily relies on visual inspection, which introduces various issues including low efficiency, and missing or false detection. While previous studies have utilized deep-learning methods in conjunction with specific optical sensors and imaging systems to detect defects, the intricate structure of injection molding products and the small magnitude of defects pose significant challenges in defect detection. To address these challenges, this paper proposes an inspection system based on Michelson interferometer capable of detecting and characterizing defects of injection molding products. Notably, by utilizing the light intensity modulation and an improved image differencing approach, this inspection system is capable of detecting defects with a magnitude as small as 0.1 mm and achieving a remarkable detection accuracy exceeding 93% on self-made datasets without utilizing phase information. The effectiveness of our method is validated by comparison with mainstream deep-learning-based defect detection methods and visual inspection methods.