Application of the Taguchi method for the optimization of visual inspection parameters for multi-layer ceramic capacitors

Multi-layer ceramic capacitors (MLCC) are extensively used as important components of various electric and electronic products. Generally, electronic consumer products, such as mobile phones and digital TVs, contain at least 150 MLCCs, which are manufactured in batches of millions of units. Automated inspection machines have replaced manual optical inspection of MLCC units. To improve the quality of optical inspection is this manual operation, the Taguchi method is used to formulate an experimental layout of machines using five important parameters that describe practical manufacturing processes. In this study, not only is the parameter design for machines that automatically inspect MLCC optimized, but also significant parameters that influence the quality of optical inspection of the MLCCs are obtained. Experimental results illustrate the effectiveness of the method.