Flexible sensor offers rapid pack inspection, says SICK UK
The UK and Ireland launch of the new sensor, the Inspector, is taking place at the PPMA show in Birmingham this week.
Vision systems are used in the food industry to ensure product and packaging quality. They provide a second pair of eyes for sorting, identifying and monitoring products.
By highlighting packaging problems early in the process, firms can avoid the problems defective items could cause, such as leaky products or jams on the production line.
Flexibility
Sick UK's vision systems specialist, David Hannaby, told FoodProductionDaily.com that the Inspector is trained to recognise pattern and can detect the presence or absence of packaging particulars.
“The Inspector offers food and drink manufacturers real flexibility in terms of quality assurance of products as it has multiple functionality, which gives it the edge over standard sensors.
“It can determine whether a special offer sticker or the right sleeve is present, if the top label matches the bottom label, if a cap is on the bottle or if there is a safety catch present,” claims Hannaby.
He said the sensor’s pass/fail functionality ensures only the correct product gets through.
“It is suitable for a range of food and drink packaging such as coffee jars, canned goods, beer cans and even ready meals,” added Hannaby.
Rapid detection
He said that the Inspector captures the image, processes it and delivers the data to the end user via simple-to-use software, with edges, contours, contrasts, grey scale values and pixels evaluated in milliseconds.
“This 2D sensor enables rapid inspection and can monitor 100 products per second.
“But the more functionality required of the sensor, the slower the speed of detection; however, the minimum speed would be 25 to 30 products per hour,” said Hannaby.
He explained that image capture and evaluation of multiple references occur as soon as an object enters the field of vision and a link to a PC interface facilitates monitoring, statistics capture, recording and emulator testing on filed images.
“Images are sent to a PC or laptop so the end user can analyse why a particular product failed inspection,” said Hannaby.
Pass or fail
Hannaby said that the sensor can be integrated with DCS communications networks through its Ethernet capability and that data from a night shift product inspection can be downloaded to determine how many products passed or failed.
He claims that the Inspector allows quick installation: “If an end user receives the equipment in the morning, it should be up and running on a production line by lunchtime.”
Hannaby added that the sensor is housed in an IP67 metal structure to enable it to withstand harsh industrial and production line wash downs, and the housing incorporates either a standard ring light or a unique diffuse dome light for inspection of glossy, reflective or metallic surfaces.
The version of the Inspector for the monitoring of reasonably large products costs €1,100, according to Hannaby, while the model for the inspection of metallic products costs €1,400.
SICK, headquartered in Germany, has a global presence with almost 50 national and international subsidiaries and numerous participations and sales offices. According to the company, itachieved sales of €707.5m in 2007.
