Cap & Level Inspection

Since its early years, Robovision has won the top spot in optical quality solutions, providing reliable solutions to many problems. With Cognex 'smart' cameras, we detect bugs such as packing fullness, level control, cap control, print control, label tag control, uniformity control, dimension measurement, color and color control, robotic arm guiding, character reading, barcode 2D code.

Today more than ever it is imperative to take measures to improve production quality and reduce costs. If you calculate the cost in man and manpower of the mistakes that occur each year it is easy to understand why our customers "loved" our systems. Each production process is aimed at products that create free errors - as high as possible. It is very important to realize that something goes wrong from the first pieces. It is much more immediate than opening pallets to find where the fault started. And all of this if you are happy and aware of the problem within the factory by saving protests, price pressures, publications and defamation. Many factors affect the proper production mode and most are not due to manageable causes. As a result, defective products are produced randomly.

In fact, in many cases it is impossible to be able to control all of the products. Where there are high speeds and a large volume of production, sampling is performed. This gives us an overview of our products. But what about the thousands of products that pass through sampling.

Our systems control one by one all the products in real time on the production line. Thus, problematic products can not go through the next stages of packaging and put them on the market. In this article we describe the solution we have given for cap and level control in the beverage bottling line at IBS SA.

IBS has been operating since 1965 and today is one of the largest bottling and food production industries in Greece. Since 1979 he has been active in the bottling and distribution of soft drinks.

In April 2008, combining knowledge, experience and passion created the new Frutop series of soft drinks with Greek authentic flavor. Each "Frutop" package seals the extraordinary materials that highlight the rich flavor and unique aroma as they are produced from 100% Greek natural juices.

The purpose of the embodiment is to control one to one each package for a good fit of the closure. Refreshments do not allow the cap to seal the bottle unsecured. Poor trickle causes oxidation in the content and therefore a risk to the health of the consumer. The application was made on a production line that bottles 12,000 units per hour. After the cap and before the label, the level is checked. The level has a minimum lower limit. When a bottle is detected at a level below the limit, the system detects an alarm. Level shooting is achieved with Back Light backlight. This special illumination creates a high contrast image even in carbonated water.

After the label, check the cap. We first check whether the Sleeve tag has shrunk around the cap. For some reasons, the label worn from top to bottom in the bottle does not terminate, so it shrinks around the cap and creates an aesthetic and functional problem for someone who will try to open the cap. There is also a risk that the stopper has not screwed to the end or is screwed up so that the bottle is not sealed. Cognex's smart camera controls one-by-one all the lids on the bottles. If a fault is detected, it gives a dump command and a piston undertakes to deflect the product to fall into the bin.

Shoot caps are captured using Back Light. Lighting creates a great contrast to the contour of the cap. Two nozzles deliver air pressure to the stopper and take care to remove the drops from the points where the measurements are taken for the test.

Development & installation was made entirely by Robovision. Thanks to Inocon's flexible support systems, the construction can be adapted to any line. The camera is protected inside an aluminum profile enclosure. It is attached to the production line. With a linear guide it is possible to precisely vary the height of the camera and at the same time the luminaire. With a butterfly it stabilizes in the new position very simply and quickly. Inovon's support systems are marketed by Robovision.

Images from the above systems are grouped into a control panel. This is VisionView a 9-inch color touch screen from Cognex. Built-in on this screen is the program that communicates with the cameras. The screen may display the image of both controls at the same time. From this, the operator can select the stored program for the corresponding product. The operation is very simple and the on-screen menus are in English but have icons.

Thus, the operator with no knowledge of the language can remember what to do. It can also configure system parameters to improve control. The operator can see statistics such as how many bottles were OK and how many did not pass the test criteria. At the bottom of the screen there are icons that if pressed show stored the last 20 images of defective products. This gives us the opportunity to see why the bottle was discarded a while ago in the bucket.

This test would be impossible for employees because the speed and volume of production is so great that monitoring is particularly painful and practically impossible.

The benefits of visual inspection are multiple.

The direct result for production is the prevention of any returns due to problematic products and 100% traceability in case of consumer complaints. We avoid product defamation and the high cost of repackaging or returning from the customer. Based on the costs incurred by such problems, the depreciation time of application costs is only one year. Producers can be confident that no customer will complain and the image of the company will remain at the level they are struggling to keep.

Thank you very much for the trust of IBS and our other customers who have similar systems like: 3E in Volos and Thermi, Vikos in Ioannina, Venus in Veria, SERKO in Serres, Haithoglou Brothers, Johnson & Johnson, Papastratos, Palaplast, Titan and many others.