Fill-and-cap sensors get technical on water-bottling line

Meridian Beverage Co.’s new, high-tech bottling line needed a high-tech verification system. Services provider Hamilton/ITS found one in a reliable fill-and-cap sensor that uses patterns to detect and inspect bottles and caps at speeds of 375 bpm.

Lauren R. Hartman, Senior Editor — Packaging Digest, 11/1/2006

Anew, high-tech bottling line can often require a new, high-tech solution to a problem. In fact, recent challenges presented to Hamilton/ITS (www.hamiltonits.com), a Vidalia, GA, technology and services provider that partners with industrial customers to provide a quick response, particularly to immediate and urgent needs, included finding a reliable fill-and-cap verification system for a speedy, new water-beverage bottling line located in Vidalia, running bottles for Meridian Beverage Co. of Atlanta. Hamilton/ITS, which installs a wide range of electronic controls and retrofits as well as upgrades older analog automation equipment, recommended the Cognex (www.cognex.com) Checker™ Model 101E sensor for the new line because of the sensor’s reliability, operating speed and added features, says Ray Hamilton, president of Hamilton/ITS.

Available in multiple sizes, including a 16.9-oz bottle with a twist cap, Meridian’s noncarbonated, naturally flavored AquaCal brand of water is fortified with calcium and is available in eight flavors.

“The challenge was to kick out bottles that weren’t filled properly or had caps that were missing or were improperly seated on the bottles,” Hamilton notes. His automation company has been assisting Meridian over the years on many challenging projects. “This latest camera sensor installation was for a line that runs almost nonstop, at up to five-hundred bottles a minute, so downtime on our system wasn’t an option.”

The sensor, above foreground, is useful on the water-bottling line because it synchronizes rejections using encoder counts instead of time to accurately track unacceptable bottles between inspection and rejection points.

Keith Gavin, who was called in from Cognex distributor TSI Solutions, Inc. (www.4tsi.com) actually suggested the new sensor to Hamilton/ITS. The latest in the Checker series, the 101E simplifies parts tracking and rejection on variable-speed production lines. Introduced this year, the 101E is said to be the first and only unit that uses patterns to detect and inspect parts to provide detection reliability. Offering the simplicity and the power of the original Checker 101, which synchronizes part rejection using time, the new 101E sensor synchronizes part rejection using encoder units.

Essentially, the 101E has a built-in PLC that verifies product presence and other packaging features, directly accepting encoder signals (a maximum of 300 kHz) and eliminating the need for an extraneous PLC when tracking and rejecting parts and packaging components. It works with Cognex’s CheckMate™ software, which runs on a PC. Merdian installed the sensor on the line in March 2006. The bottling line was installed a month earlier.

In Meridian’s case, the sensor determines things that can take place out of sight and under the bottle caps, and also checks improperly applied caps and tamper-evident cap-safety rings as the bottles pass through the inspection station. It also inspects for the proper fluid fill levels.

Eliminating the need for a high-speed parts-counter module, complex wiring or mounting devices, ladder-logic programming and precise parts handling when using multiple photoelectric sensors, the 101E can reduce or negate some of the costs and complexities of a PLC for parts tracking and rejection on variable-speed lines and bottling lines like Meridian’s.

“We liked the fact that the sensor has a built-in PLC and encoder tracking, which facilitates kickout of unacceptable bottles and caps,” says Hamilton. “We contacted TSI and decided to go with the Checker 101E. It is proving to be very cost-effective.”

Operators can install the sensor in a user-friendly, step-by-step fashion, without ever having to stop the line. After the CheckMate software is installed on a PC, the next step is to mount the unit so that it faces the item to be inspected, connect the 24-VDC power cables connect the supplied USB cable to the PC connect, and the sensor is ready to begin acquiring and processing real-time video at 500 frames/sec. With the click of a “get-started” button, the sensor records images of “passed” or “failed” components so that the user can see exactly what’s working and correct any problems, if necessary.

If inspection isn’t required, the sensor can be used to improve process control by detecting and tracking parts or film webs. With built-in lighting and optics, as well as a built-in industrial I/O, the 101E detects packaging components, such as a straw on a juice box or the presence of a date/lot code, for example, by understanding what they look like. Unlike the shift register of a PLC, which requires programming, the sensor’s shift register is automatic, enabling it to accurately track as many as 4,000 flawed bottles between the inspection and rejection points, which on Meridian’s line, are a few feet past the bottle-capping station.

Described as a “multipurpose” sensor, the unit detects packaging features that may otherwise require multiple photoelectric sensors, or may not be within their capability because it precisely asserts its output at the proper encoder position for each bottle, Cognex says. Thus it can eliminate the need for a separate PLC. The sensor is able to operate on production lines running as fast as 3,000 parts/min.

The compact sensor fits in a light-controlling hood through which the bottles pass. Its internal shift register tracks flawed bottles and triggers the kickout station.

TSI’s Gavin says that he especially recommended the 101E to Meridian because its built-in PLC can accept encoder feedback, can track any “bad bottle” locations and can properly trigger the reject station when needed. “TSI and the Cognex team really helped us integrate a great solution for Meridian,” Hamilton points out. “With it, we cut about fifty percent off of the time it usually takes to develop logic and software.”

The AqualCal bottling line, which currently runs Meridian’s 16.9-oz bottle and is expected to soon run an 8-oz size, was installed at contract packager Markey Foods (www.markeyfoods.com) in Vidalia. The self-contained sensor tracks seven different features and samples five to seven snapshots, or images, of each bottle. The numerous snapshots reduce false-negative responses. After the bottles pass the sensing station, an air cylinder rejects and kicks off bottles that don’t meet requirements or that are questionable. The rejected containers move onto an accumulation table about 1.5 ft away.

The self-triggering feature of the sensor eliminates the need for external circuitry, which significantly helped to reduce the costs of purchase, design, installation and maintenance, says Hamilton.

After final in-place tuning, the project team found that the system tested 100-percent for cap placement and proper fill level. The plastic bottles feed on the line, shoulder-to-shoulder, at about 375/min under the current production schedules. But the 101E sensing system is rated to run at speeds up to 500 bottles/min.

Charles Purcell, vp of manufacturing at Meridian Beverage, says he is very pleased with the sensor’s ability to synchronize cap rejection and unacceptable fill levels on the speedy packaging line using encoder counts instead of time to track flawed packages between the inspection and rejection points. “We expect effective solutions for our company’s money,” he says. “The Checker is the type of thing we like to see. It’s easy to use, efficient and cost-effective.”

Hamilton says TSI and Cognex offered a simplified approach to sensor technology, noting that the sensor cut design and engineering time in half and saved about 20 percent in equipment costs.

Smooth pizza picking with a robot

Pick-and-place robots load three types of frozen pizzas—triangular, circular and oval—into a flowpack machine ahead of a cartoner at Italian pizza producer Panidea. The equipment also includes a vision system to collate the pizzas neatly on the line, even those that aren’t uniform in shape. The pizzas also must be handled delicately with the robotic gripper, because items on top of the pizza mustn’t be lost in the trip from the line to the package.

Staff — Control Engineering, 8/1/2007

While an expert pizzaiolo might prepare a pizza in a few minutes, an industrial pizza machine must turn out hundreds of pizzas in the same time frame. No one would claim that frozen pizza tastes quite the same as that prepared fresh in a brick oven, but frozen pizza can bring a lot of satisfaction to those who want the taste of Italy and don’t have an authentic pizzeria nearby.

For an industrial pizza producer, making the pizza is only the first part of the problem. The pizza must then be frozen, sorted, wrapped and packaged in accordance with regulations for freshness and hygiene, and must not lose its attractiveness during this process. For example, if the pizza starts out round, it should still be round when it arrives in the consumer’s kitchen. If cheese has been sprinkled on top of the pizza, it should still be there when the customer opens the package, and not be left behind on the factory floor.

Last year, Italian pizza producer Panidea asked the Vortex Systems Div. of CT Pack s.r.l. (www.ctpack.com), a system integrator, to design an automated packaging system for frozen pizzas. Pizzas coming from a freezer were to be loaded into a flowpack machine before going to a cartoning machine. The major challenge was to handle three different shapes of pizzas: triangular, circular and oval. Furthermore, the customer wanted a fully flexible and scalable system, where new products could be introduced as the capacity increased over time.

A specific challenge with pizzas is that they don’t always collate neatly on the line and may not be perfectly uniform in shape. The pizzas also must be handled delicately with the robot’s gripper. Items on top of the pizza mustn’t be lost in the trip from the line to the package. Looking at these requirements, Vortex Systems concluded that this combination of total flexibility and high capacity could only be achieved through the use of a Model RB340 FlexPicker robot from ABB, Inc. (www.abb.com), used in conjunction with ABB’s PickMaster software for vision guidance.

The FlexPicker is a parallel, kinematics robot that is said to offer a great combination of speed and flexibility. With picking rates exceeding 120 items/min, the robot can pick and place products one-by-one. Since all the motors and gears are fixed on the base of the robot, the mass of the moving arms is limited to a few kilograms. This means that accelerations above 10 gravity can be achieved.

The FlexPicker has a hygienic design, and the fact that the robot is top-mounted means it doesn’t restrict access to the robot line, a feature that is greatly appreciated by both operators and maintenance personnel.

The PickMaster vision software gives the robots “eyes.” The pizzas are arranged randomly on a conveyor belt, and the robots need to know their location to pick them up. Incorporating a vision system from Cognex Corp. (www.cognex.com), the PickMaster PC-based software package makes the programming of multiple (up to eight) robots, cameras and conveyor belts an easy task—even for an inexperienced robot programmer. The loading system contains two FlexPicker robots, each with a camera and PickMaster software. Should Panidea wish to upgrade the capacity of the system, the layout has room for a third robot at the end of the line.

The key to the success of this pizza-loading system, which is the first of its kind in Italy, is the gripper design. Although single grippers are simpler and cheaper than multiple grippers, the high capacity and product variation makes the gripping technology very important. In this project, two types of grippers are used: a finger-like gripper and a faster, vacuum gripper. Each robot has a capacity of 60 to 80 pizzas/min, depending on the type of gripper being used. If a third robot is added to the line, the maximum capacity of the system will be 240 pizzas/min.

The cameras and the Cognex vision systems locate the pizzas and feed the positions to the robot controller. The products don’t have to be guided or prearranged, as they would need to be with conventional automation systems. Instead, they can be fed on an ordinary, flat conveyor belt for all product variants; the FlexPicker robots and vision system take care of the rest. The result is a cleaner robot-based system with fewer mechanical peripherals. The flexibility provided by this approach is very valuable to the customer, since it allows the optimal mix of products to be produced, depending on consumer demand. In addition, only the grippers need to be changed to accommodate different batches, so downtime and loss of production are minimal. Also the ability to add another robot is a valuable option to accommodate future growth in the demand for the pizzas. Since the system packages open food, it is mainly designed in stainless steel to meet washdown standards—an important requirement in food production.

According to personnel at Panidea, the FlexPicker system installation went very smoothly and took only two weeks. The reliability has been very good, they say, since the installation in March 2004. According to Panidea engineers, this is probably the only way to automate this application with such a great combination of flexibility and speed. The only equally flexible alternative to the FlexPickers would have been a much more costly solution using manual labor.

The pizza-picking installation is an excellent example of how standard robots and application software result in a short payback for a food producer. Panidea says it is already planning to continue the expansion of the concept.

Defect-free packaging for distribution

Cognex vision satisfies a sweet tooth

When you are responsible for getting a popular chocolate product to its fans, you have a responsibility to ensure that all sweet tooths are satisfied! Even more so when it concerns a 100 year old chocolate wafer treat known as the ‘Mannerschnitte” or “Neapolitaner”. Only products that are in perfect condition and feature a uniform level of quality can ensure market success. Thanks to the In-Sight 5400 vision sensor, the company is now able to ensure that all Mannerschnitt wafers are thoroughly inspected before they leave the plant for distribution.

The worlds largest oven
With an annual capacity of 8000 tonnes of flat wafers and biscuits, the world’s largest wafer oven is located at Perg, near Linz. Enormous quantities of product are processed by almost 100 employees, who ensure that the portions are packed individually and put into cardboard boxes. The issue of hygiene is critical in the food industry. Products must be packed in the correct packaging and must be completely airtight.

Tough customers
Consumers of chocolate are not to be toyed with. If the expected hazelnut taste were impaired by packaging defects, the company could lose customers. Complaints mean consequences, including financial repercussions and bad publicity. Products supplied to the end customer must be 100% free of defects. This applies not only to its own branded products, but also to the products being produced on behalf of other large customers - an important market segment.

100% defect free – how?
The company needed a new solution to cope with the increased quality demands. It was decided that a vision system would provide the answer but it was clear that this vision system would have to meet the challenge and cope with the following requirements :

- reliable inspection of all packaging at production speeds of up to 400 packages per minute
- flexibility to cope with many different product variants
- easy operation and programming
- the aim was to use the new checking station to make the whole production process smoother

Many different characteristics to be inspected simultaneously and these need to be easily taught to the system:

- 25 different packaging colour variants
- 100 texts in different languages printed on the packaging
- inspection of label positioning
- ensure there are no dents or defects in the packaging
- verify presence of picture and text

Integrating the solution in record time
Schmachtl Gmbh from Linz, a Partner System Integrator (PSI) of Cognex impressed Manner with the results of their feasibility study done for the Perg plant. The solution took advantage of the In-Sight® 5400 vision system from Cognex to keep the design of the inspection station simple allowing the mechanical set-up and installation to be done internally by Manner’s own engineering/maintenance team. The inspection station checks whether the label is equally positioned from the left and right edge of the packaging, whether there are dents or defects in the packaging, which picture and text is on the packaging and much more.

The order was placed at the end of April 2006 and the quality control station was already put in place by the end of May. To ensure operator and production efficiency right from the start, the Linz-based company, which is, had already performed the programming of the customer-specific vision tasks for a wide range of packaging variants. The extent of the different component characteristics meant it was important for operators to be able to easily manipulate the inspection station.

Product location regardless of orientation and position
The high-performance In-Sight 5400 vision systems combined with the capabilities of PatMax® vision software allows many different characteristics to be checked simultaneously and quickly. The key advantage of Patmax in this application is that the individual packages of Mannerschnitt wafers can flow through the inspection station on the conveyor belt without needing to be fixed in a particular position. The vision system also detects any faults in the packaging supplied by external suppliers and this has allowed the company to eliminate the occurrence of rejected product.

12 “windows” ensure no defect is left unseen
In order to take advantage of the processing power of the In-Sight 5400 to achieve the high levels of production output that the company is aiming for, Schmachtl divided the entire image area for packaging into 12 individual PatMax windows in order to detect packaging characteristics more quickly, more flexibly and more efficiently. When combined, the characteristics indicate whether the product is free of defects. For example, two windows are used solely to determine whether the packaging is centred properly. Another field is used for pattern matching. It could mean determining whether the picture of the hazelnut is present or checking the corners for dents and tears.

5% production increase and no more complaints
Simple to use and easy to operate, Manner employees are able to easily train various characteristics on the vision system for the entire range of packaging. This enables the staff to react quickly to various types of fault. For example, if a package is dented it may become jammed further down the production line resulting in additional unnecessary product rejects. Now incidents such as this are at a minimum and the company is able to guarantee that the packaging is airtight and flawless in appearance The most noticeable effect of this improvement is that the company no longer receives any complaints which in turn eliminates the cost that would have been incurred finding the problem. By keeping interruptions in the production flow to a minimum, productivity has increased by around 5%.

Reinhard Gassner, plant manager at Perg, said “If the conveyor belt is operating at a speed of, for example, 270 packages per minute, then just a few seconds of defective production means several dozen rejected packages. This is not just a question of cost, it also has a negative effect on the production flow. Problems like this are now in the past.”

Visionary production
Based on the success of the first inspection stations, the company is now looking at whether other areas of production could benefit from a vision system. The 100% quality checking of each package has also helped guarantee large customer orders and improved quality certification. The Perg plant has become recognized as a centre of competence for all types of technology within Manner AG for its expertise in combining the best engineering with effective vision technology.

Quality inspection and sorting

Cognex vision guarantees perfect pizza
Ensuring the quality of the worlds favorite food is no laughing matter. When you supply over 110 000 units of pizza everyday, you need to make sure that each product is fully inspected and of the utmost quality. Gunnar Dafgård AB is Sweden’s largest family business in the food sector. They manufacture and distribute frozen and chilled products to food services and retail outlets all over Sweden and beyond. Dafgård now has around 1000 employees and a turnover of approximately 200 million euros.

In order to improve high quality and confront increasingly tough competition within the food industry in Sweden, each freshly baked pizza is inspected with vision from Cognex.

The quality control challenge:
Dafgård installed vision in order to inspect the different varieties of pizzas produced and marketed under the common brand “Billy”. Production is ongoing in the largest pizza bakery in Sweden, located outside Lidköping in the west of Sweden. Every day 110 000 units of Billy’s pan-pizza are manufactured and distributed frozen, to food services and to retail outlets in Sweden and beyond. Each individual pizza must be inspected to ensure correct form, size and look, all vital statistics for the success of a brand on any tough consumer market. In order to maintain high production levels as well as reliable and consistent quality control, a robust and highly automated solution needed to be found.

An improved production environment thanks to vision
The decision was made over 5 years ago to install vision systems as Dafgård began the automation of their food-production. Previously, manual inspection was done under complicated circumstances with random sampling that made it difficult for the company to secure reliable quality control of production on the pizza-line. The In-Sight® 5100 vision sensor from Cognex inspects the position of the pizzas on the production line ensuring the look, the size and the form of the pizzas are correct. Even the coverage of cheese on the surface of the pizza is inspected. Any pizzas not conforming are rejected. The vision-system was installed by a Cognex’ Partner System Integrator, AVT Industriteknik AB. AVT developed a user-friendly interface which made it possible for the employees on the pizza-line to make choices of different vision applications and make adjustments of the vision-program without any previous experience in machine vision.

According to Ove Rydberg project leader of Dafgårds; “Our use of vision-systems for automatic inspection is an integrated part of the job for improved quality and a better working environment for the employees on the pizza-line. Cognex was chosen based on the fact that Cognex have in-depth knowledge of the food industry worldwide”.

Inspecting juice bottles

SciTech and Cognex enable Original Juice Co. (Golden Circle) to achieve Total Quality inspection of Bottle Products after filling process

Original Juice Co. found itself with a challenge when it came to achieving consistent results in the placement of a bottle cap onto a product bottle after the filling stage. It wanted every bottle cap that gets twisted onto all of their different product bottles to be applied fully, to be applied straight and not skewed, and to be sure that the tamper-band is not broken on those particular products that require one.

The company looked to install a state-of-the-art vision systems that could inspect a variety of imperfections not tolerated on high-speed lines and filling equipment. The shoulder strength of the various bottles is very important and must withstand significant head pressure and torque in capping and filling stages of operation. Any defect that could compromise the integrity of this area is an inspection attribute of the vision system.

In addition to performing reliable and repetitive applications, the vision system chosen would need to inspect at a high-speed rate of up to 300 bottles per minute to accommodate the high production requirements of Original Juice Co. To address this, Original Juice Co. began working with SciTech Pty Ltd, which has a long history of machine vision experience as a Cognex Integrator.

The process began with SciTech performing an on-site trial. The results met the satisfaction requirements of all involved and proved that this project was feasible and would be of enormous benefit in ensuring that every bottle leaving the Original Juice Co. plant is entirely free of imperfections. The trial focused on one bottle product only. On conclusion of the trial period, work began on implementing a full system that would cater to all current bottle products and also be scalable in order to accommodate any new bottle and cap types in the future.

SciTech chose to use the industrial-grade In-Sight® machine vision sensors from Cognex. In-Sight 5100 and 5400 vision sensors are the highest performance models of the industry-leading family of In-Sight vision sensors. SciTech was confident in choosing the In-Sight 5100 to satisfy the inspection requirements involved.

The In-Sight 5100 incorporates a die-cast aluminum housing and sealed industrial M12 connectors and achieves an IP67 rating for dust and wash-down protection on the factory floor. These environmental attributes would prove to be crucial in withstanding the wet, citric-acid environment of the inspection site as a result of the juices produced as well as the cleaning chemicals used in the area.
This also required that the fixtures and fitting to be built using only stainless steel material.

Two cameras are better than one

The overall system consists of a touch-screen industrial PC incorporated into a stainless steel enclosure. The enclosure also houses the Ethernet hub, the digital power supply of the lights, a PLC and various power distribution components. After bottles have been filled and capped they travel down the conveyor line, where two cameras sequentially inspect the bottles.

The first camera looks directly at one side of the bottle and inspects the bottle cap at this side only. A red LED backlight provides the camera with a silhouette image of the bottle. Back lighting provides maximum contrast between the product outline and its background and is ideal for measuring external part edges. This results in images that work extremely well for the vision sensor’s measurement and inspection tools.

When the bottle comes within the camera’s field of view, a sensor is triggered and an image is taken. Cognex In-Sight vision software tools then analyze the image for defects and determine whether a bottle is flawed or not. In the event of a failure being detected, a fail signal is sent via one of the camera’s outputs to the PLC. The PLC then triggers a reject mechanism, which removes the bottle from the line. After passing the first camera, the bottle will travel a little further before the second camera acquires another image of it.

The second camera, mounted similarly to the first camera except at the opposite side of the conveyor, focuses on the other side of the bottle cap. The same inspection criteria apply equally to this camera. All defective parts are knocked off the conveyor line into a reject bin. A red beacon also becomes illuminated for 5 seconds when a bottle defect is noticed, notifying the operator.

Good parts are simply allowed to continue unhindered on the production line.  During this inspection a pattern of lines is projected onto the bottle cap and bottle, and the vision system is used to detect any deformity in cap height on the bottle, cap presence or absence, tamper-band presence and quality, and cap skew. To complete these tasks the vision system uses edge detection and histogram software to measure the cap, analyze the angle of the cap and determine cap presence.

Operator-Friendly

Because of the number and variation of bottles involved, the system would need to be able to accommodate easy product changeover. The mechanical fixturing was designed with this specific requirement in mind. The cameras, backlights and sensors were mounted onto one fixed bracket that could be moved vertically via a turn wheel by the operator to accommodate the different height requirements of the bottles involved.

The changeover procedure requires a height-determining tool to be temporarily attached to the fixture. Using a turn-wheel, the operator screws the tool down to a position whereby the tool rests gently on top of the bottle lip. When the tool rests on top of the bottle lip, the correct camera/light/sensor position for that product has been set. On completion, the operator removes the height-determining tool from its slot.

The final step in the changeover procedure is the operator makes a selection, via a custom application, using touch commands on the computer’s screen. This screen uses a tab-style interface to segregate the different bottle types appropriately. Each tab has a descriptive name indicating the different bottle categories.

On selecting the appropriate tab to the bottle type being run, a corresponding button appears that when pressed loads the correct vision file associated with the new product being run on the line. On successful completion of this step, the main software interface screen will contain the descriptive name of the bottle type selected. The changeover procedure is now complete and the line is ready to run.

When the line is running, a custom application on the VGA touch-screen monitor shows the last failed image acquired from each camera. The cameras also FTP their data back to the PC which is stored in text files. This provides Original Juice Co. quality engineers with more information about their process.

The vision system’s key asset is preventing defectively sealed bottles from being shipped to customers. Most importantly, the vision system has ensured that every bottle leaving the Original Juice Co. plant is free of imperfections.  This has allowed Original Juice Co, to adhere to their pledge in high-quality products.

About Golden Circle/Original Juice Co.

Golden Circle’s main factory is located at Northgate, a northern suburb of Brisbane. Golden Circle also owns the Original Juice Co. plant at Mill Park, on Melbourne’s northern outskirts, and a fresh fruit packing operation in Griffith, NSW. Sales offices are located in every Australian state and New Zealand.
Golden Circle is an unlisted public company proudly owned by 700 Australian farmers. These farmers, plus others, supply more than 180,000 tonnes of fruit and vegetables every year to the factory for processing. The fruit crops, of which pineapple is the largest, come from the Sunshine Coast hinterland, Maryborough, Yeppoon and further north and the vegetables largely from the Lockyer Valley region, south-west of Brisbane. Crops not grown in Queensland are sourced from southern states.

VisionPro makes a famous Dutch blonde even more attractive…

VisionPro makes a famous Dutch blonde even more attractive…

The Grolsch brewery in the Netherlands, one of the largest Dutch breweries, relies on the expertise of two German companies who built them a machine with one simple goal - to sell more beer! The machine in question is not a mere beverage dispenser but a system relying on VisionPro from Cognex which uses special grippers to rotate and align the bottles so that they are in the best position with optimum visibility. Tradition, innovation and business thinking are all combined into a beverage machine which promotes sales.

Improving presentation at the point of sale
As one of the leading companies in the brewery industry, Grolsche Bierbrouwerij Nederland B.V. does not only concentrate on optimising its logos, labels and other advertising media. The company thought about how it could improve the presentation of its product at the point of sale. As a result, Grolsch rotates the bottles which are visible through the opening in the crate so that their labels point symmetrically towards the outside, thus allowing them to project the optimal image to the beer connoisseur in the supermarket. Bottles are rotated rapidly at a rate of 400 per minute with the end goal of influencing the customer. It’s subtle but the effect is clear - customers pick up a crate of Grolsch beer more often than they would have otherwise.

The challenge - ensure a premium beer is in a premium position
The experts who make sure that the Grolsch swing-top bottles are in the correct position before they start their journey to the customer come from a company which has specialised in sophisticated beverage and packaging machine solutions for over 35 years: the German company RICO-Maschinenbau GmbH & Co. RICO was supported in designing the system by fellow Germans aku.automation GmbH, a member of the Cognex partner integrator network, who specialise in ensuring that machines are in harmony with their production environment: The two companies developed a pioneering solution which combines the latest automation technology with intelligent vision technology and the software solutions of Cognex to accurately move the Grolsch bottles into the desired position.

Lights, camera, action!
The system operates with two parallel conveyor belts transporting up to 3000 crates per hour through the bottle alignment machine, with each crate holding 16 swing-top bottles. However, only the eight bottles in each crate with labels that are visible through the side opening have to be rotated. 10 crates are processed per cycle. Two industrial cameras are positioned approximately 1.5 metres above the conveyor belts with each camera monitoring the five crates on its respective belt. The two cameras are intelligently embedded into homogenous area lighting units, which provide optimal illumination without casting undesirable shadows.

VisionPro from Cognex tackles bottle alignment
Two factors make it easy for the machine to identify the position of the total number of 80 bottles. Firstly, the swing-top cap with Grolsch logo - the alignment of the cap is used to ensure that the bottle labels are always applied at the same position ahead of the rotation process. Secondly, VisionPro, the PC vision platform from Cognex is well suited to the bottle alignment machine because it was specially designed for multi-camera applications with low cycle rates and large numbers of evaluation targets. To date, the VisionPro tool library has proven its capabilities in over 400,000 systems worldwide.

24,000 bottles rotated per hour in a tough environment
After the object localisation step, the bottles are then aligned. Special pneumatic grippers from RICO for swing-top caps grip the bottles and lift them up slightly. Small servo motors then convert the previously identified values into the target positions. They rotate the bottles to the correct position based on a rotation angle in degrees which is individually determined for each bottle. This is an enormous job considering that 24,000 bottles have to be rotated every hour. In addition, all of this takes place in an area where the technology is permanently at risk from one of the substances it tolerates the least - water!
Meeting factory floor needs
aku.automation was actively involved in the project right from the system planning phase, which put the company in a position to develop a reliable and robust inspection system. The experience of this specialist in object-oriented checking has been combined with RICO’s comprehensive knowledge about the special requirements of the beverage industry to produce solutions which are more than capable of meeting the practical requirements of the industry. For example, both the illumination systems and the cameras are accommodated in very sturdy, watertight stainless steel housings. This was necessary because although these components are installed above the production line and do not come into direct contact with the beverage already inside the bottle, the experts from RICO know that cleaning operations in beverage production plants always involve plenty of water spray and that cleaning staff cannot be expected to avoid sensitive components.

A great deal of experience, tradition and specialist knowledge have been combined with the latest technology and innovative vision software to produce a system which shows the Grolsch brand and the companies involved in the best light imaginable - a true marketing machine!

Bottle crown and cap inspection

100% fault detection on high-speed bottle crowning line

Integrating a user-friendly vision sensors into a multiple-product bottle crowning line provides a simple solution to fault detecting for leading Australian brewery.

Tooheys currently produces more than 300 million liters of beer annually from its Lidcombe-based brewery in Sydney’s west. Any company operating in a production critical industry on this scale knows just how damaging undetected product defects can be to business and understands the true value of an effective product defect inspection system. At Tooheys, two product lines running multiple bottled products are required to make frequent product changes – often in the course of a 24-hour period. With each product change requiring a change in bottle crown or cap incorrect bottle crowning can occur. Add to this a line speed running at 1200 bottles per minute and it is easy to see why a fast and reliable defect inspection solution was necessary to satisfy Tooheys’ stringent quality controls.

A high-tech solution for high-speed production
Machinery Automation & Robotics’ (MAR) approach to the bottle crowning inspection project at Tooheys was simple. Use advanced technology to create a user-friendly solution. The Cognex Insight 5400 vision sensor was selected for its speed and interface ability, its capacity to detect defects in any 360-degree orientation and its robust design – the system undergoes regular wash downs. And the ability to make changes to the threshold determining acceptance of variable product qualities – detecting scratches, water blobs, misprints or print faults, for example – means that the defective product rejection accuracy rate of the Cognex Insight vision system is extremely high.

The vision system at work
Two Cognex Insight 5400 vision sensors are installed on Tooheys’ AB2 bottling lines, each inspecting for correct crown placement on the product selected. Product selection itself is achieved simply via a touch screen/HMI. The camera is mounted on an adjustable post, specifically designed to allow for bottle height variations. Upon product selection the camera is simply moved up or down to maintain a camera focal length of 125mm from the top of the bottle crown. Along with the camera itself, the mounting bracket houses a DOAL lighting system, used to emit a red light on to the crowns. The red-cut lens cover filters out ambient light, resulting in a highly accurate image being captured by the camera.

All controls for the vision sensors are wired back to the line’s main electrical panel. Within the panel lies the power supply for the DOAL lighting system and the Insight cameras. The panel also houses the I/O module. This module interfaces with the vision sensor and the PLC, allowing product changes to be loaded into In-Sight and output changes to be relayed to the reject mechanism. Consequently, if an incorrect crown is detected the bottle is rejected further down the line via a delayed signal sent from the PLC. For ease, the cameras can be monitored via an Ethernet connection back to a local PC. Program changes can also be made at this point with the Cognex Insight Explorer software, making new product changes very simple.

Working together for independence
By adopting a strong teamwork approach to this project MAR has designed and engineered a vision sensor solution employing user-friendly software, which Tooheys is able to fully operate independently. Acting in an advisory capacity MAR provided assistance with the initial integration process enabling Tooheys’ staff to undertake the vision system installation autonomously. Comprehensive training provided to Tooheys’ staff by MAR on software installation, programming and modifications, bottle crown changeover processes, and basic operational procedures for the Cognex Insight vision systems package has allowed Tooheys to undertake subsequent unit installations and programming.

Adding up the benefits
Addressing the issue of defect detection on high speed, multiple product production lines with a simple yet effective integrated vision system solution has provided Tooheys with many benefits including:
• An integrated vision system including electrical and mechanical design, software and functional design, vision I/O interface to PLC, installation, modification and on-line commissioning
• A user-friendly vision system solution and comprehensive training package enabling independent installation, programming and operation by the client
• An effective partnership of world-leading Cognex vision technology and MAR’s extensive vision system integration experience
• Expertise in lens, lighting and camera selections
• A robust and reliable vision system designed for high-speed lines

Technology at work for Tooheys
• The control system features a Siemens S7 PLC and uses software code and field sensors to detect product to be inspected by the vision sensors and provide relevant outputs to operate the reject mechanism
• Two high-speed outputs are standard with the vision system.
• The interface between the Cognex Insight 5400 cameras and the Siemens PLC is via a Cognex I/O module and a field cable link. The I/O module then inputs to the Siemens PLC in the same panel
• A single Cognex Insight 5400 camera inspects multiple defects in one image capture and recognition process at the above line speed
• The recognition tools available with the Cognex Insight Vision system detect incorrect, damaged or misprinted bottle crowns in any 360-degree orientation at typical line speeds
• Custom selected lighting solutions provide adequate lighting for each inspection station and remove ambient light changes adversely affecting the visual inspection process
• The Cognex Insight vision system has a high wash down rating IP67

Bottling line upgrade for defect elimination

Bottling inspection guaranteed by Cognex Checker

The automation solutions deployed in the Ottakringer Brauerei AG, Vienna, demonstrate the effectiveness and attractive cost/performance ratio of the Cognex ‘Checker 101′ sensor. Their inspection stations are now able to guarantee that beer crates and boxes of canned beverages contain the correct amount of product.

Check it with Checker!
Customer satisfaction is a decisive factor in face of tough competition in the brewery business. Ottakringer Brewery needed to guarantee packaging units contained the full number of defect-free products, as a quality measure to prevent customer complaints. The second-largest Austrian brewery was able to make significant production and quality improvements while reducing costs by using the intelligent ‘Checker 101′ high-speed sensor from Cognex. Image-based sensors are increasingly taking over the tasks previously performed by standard sensor technology. In this brewery, intelligent sensor technology benefited production lines and sales and also proved to be an important factor for the company’s activities in the competitive contract bottling market.

Quality and quantity ensured by smart sensor technology
The main priority of the brewery’s maintenance department is the inspection of beer crates and boxes of cans to ensure they contain the correct amount. Ottakringer contacted the image processing department of Cognex partner Schmachtl GmbH. The brewery’s production automation needs and priorities were established by the Schmachtl team. These tasks are performed successfully by ‘Checker 101′, the vision sensor solution from Cognex. In order to allow the brewery to develop an in-house solution, Schmachtl provided a test unit and specialist advice giving the maintenance team the flexibility to set up the checking station themselves. The ease of installation and operation as well as the simple programming of the system using a laptop computer proved significant advantages. The brewery was able to start automatically inspecting the boxes of beverage cans for in January 2006. The procedure involves passing each box along a running conveyor belt equipped with the Checker sensor to determine whether it contains 24 correctly inserted cans before the box is shrink-wrapped.. The results of the check are transferred directly to the production control system. Production flow is improved and batch production statistics are easily obtained.

Fast and scalable: from cans to crates
Their positive experiences with the checking system for boxes of cans encouraged the maintenance department introduce the solution to further applications. The next step was to introduce a completeness check on the beer crates. This inspection method needed to be replaced with a more modern, more flexible and more reliable checking technology. In the past, a complicated system technology using many individual sensors was used. The in-house maintenance department decided to use ‘Checker’ in February 2006 and the job was complete by March. The simple, space-saving design proved to be of great benefit, meaning that no fundamental changes to the conveyor line were required. Checker inspects the beer crates on the running conveyor belt to check they have the correct amount. Checker can also differentiate whether the bottles have light or dark tops thus performing an extra quality inspection on the bottling line. The intelligent sensor automatically adjusts to the respective product determining whether an 18, 20 or 24 bottle crate is on the line. The operating staff do not have to modify the checking station when changing the job type. The checking station now operates on a two to three-shift basis and reliably inspects beer crates at a rate of approximately one per second. Integration of Checker into the control technology of the production system was easy due to the standardized interface. Checker also causes the production belt to stop automatically if a fault is registered.

Operating staff are able to program new jobs quickly and easily at any time using a laptop. With the new “Train and Go” capability, new characteristics can be programmed into a sensor even without a PC. When the job type on the production line is changed, the Checker can automatically switch over to as many as 16 different sensor configurations in real time. As a result, this checking station still possesses significant flexibility potential in terms of product range and characteristic selection.

Internal success shows on the outside
An intelligent solution that means quality improvements are clearly noticeable right down to customer level ultimately contribute to an improved company image and the brewery is already checking the possibility of additional applications.
Checker – facts and figures

· Compact, independent all-in-one solution
· Small and robust, protection class IP67
· simple configuration and installation
· Integrated LED illumination and lens
· Analyses up to 500 images per second
· Direct process integration (no PLC required)
· No external trigger necessary
· Industrial I/O interface
· Integrated USB 2.0 interface
· 24 VDC operating voltage
· “Train and Go” capability
· Dimensions: 53.2 x 129.2 x 45.9 mm

Checker Application Summary

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