Abstract: A process and an apparatus for its realization are provided for an automatic non-contact surface inspection of cylindrical parts. The parts under inspection are imparted a rotary motion about their axis of symmetry and are exposed to largely parallel light whose diffused portion reflected by the surface of the parts is evaluated optoelectronically.

Abstract: A bottle is moved over a sector of a circular path and simultaneously rotated around its longitudinal axis for the opto-electronic inspection of the mouth area for chipping of the glass. The bottle is guided through the beam path of a measuring apparatus on its way over the circular path. A measuring beam passes at an oblique angle to the longitudinal axis of the bottle in the area of the mouth opening. The location dependent scanning signal generated by the measuring apparatus during each scan corresponding to every discrete angular position of the bottle displays a characteristic intensity modulation. The presence of a chip in the glass may be recognized in the scanning signal by the absence of the intensity maximum present at the location of a chip. The absence of the intensity maximum may be ascertained by measuring the distance between two adjacent intensity maxima and comparing the measured distance with a reference value.