Inspection of high speed bottling line
November 1st 2005 Original Juice Co wanted every bottle cap that gets twisted onto all of its bottles to be applied fully, straight and not skewed, and ensure that the tamper band is not broken on those products that require one.
The company looked to install a vision system that could detect a variety of imperfections not tolerated on high speed lines and filling equipment. Original Juice Co began working with SciTech Pty that has a long history of machine experience as a Cognex Integrator.
SciTech chose to use the Cognex In-Sight range of industrial machine vision cameras. The In-Sight 5100 incorporates a die cast aluminium housing and sealed industrial M12 connectors and achieves an IP67 rating to dust and wash down protection on the factory floor.
After bottles have been filled and capped they travel down a 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 contrast and is ideal for measuring external part edges. When the bottle comes within the camera's field of view, a sensor is triggered and an image is taken. The Cognex In-Sight software tools then analyse the image for defects and determine whether a bottle is defective 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. The second camera at the opposite side of the conveyor focuses on the other side of the bottle cap. More articles from Cognex UK: | 
