ROBOTICS & AUTOMATION
The image captured by the camera compared to the actual cheese. This pack would pass successfully. If the number of green highlighted areas drops below a defined threshold, the pack would fail as it would indicate that the seal had broken and air had entered the pack
Dairy test
This pack would fail as the number of green highlighted areas has dropped below the defined threshold indicating a broken seal
AutoCoding Systems and Dairy Crest, Davidstow are no strangers when it comes to developing applications to meet specific requirements. They have recently worked together to design a vision system, which analyses and identifies vacuum failures on sealed packs of 20kg blocks of cheese. Dairy Crest, Davidstow produces over 48,000 tonnes of cheddar cheese per year in 20kg blocks, 80% of this being the well-known Cathedral City brand. The 20kg blocks are vacuum sealed to prevent air leaking into the cheese prior to the 12-18 month maturation cycle. The AutoCoding vision system identifies vacuum failures on the sealed 20kg blocks. The system comprises a camera driven software application that analyses the reflected light from the surface of the vacuum-sealed cheese block and rejects the block if it doesn’t meet the defined criteria. Reports are generated which give the total number of blocks through the system, the number of seal failures and an analysis of the efficiency of the sealing process. With over 120 tonnes of cheese going along the line each day, the system had to be efficient because even a small percentage of cheese blocks with broken seals would result in mould growth during the maturation period. Based on previous successful projects with AutoCoding Systems, Dairy Crest approached them again to help develop a system based on the obsolete method. Initially, AutoCoding faced challenges such as variations in size, colour and surface texture of the cheese blocks making it difficult to adjust the camera and image processing to capture all defects, whilst not resulting in a false alarm for good seals. For further information please telephone 01928 790444, email
janetharrison@autocodingsystems.com or visit
www.autocodingsystems.com
It’s a wrap!
Aetna has installed two ROBOPAC 507 machines in Cockerill’s potato packhouse. Cockerill initially only installed one of Aetna’s ROBOPAC machine when they were unable to immediately gain spare parts for their existing pallet wrapper. The ROBOPAC 507 turntable pallet wrapper was installed and programmed in only 3 days; this service impressed operations manager David Elvidge enough to invest in a second wrapper. Combined the two machines can wrap in excess of 200 pallets per day. Cockerill’s prepack potato business has seen a 50% increase in turnover the last three years, facilitated by a £3m extension to the pack house. For further information please telephone 01234 825050 or email
colin.barker@
aetna.co.uk
Preventing mix ups
Mettler Toledo explores the important issue of label mix-up prevention in its free online webinar – Implementing a Label Mix-up Prevention Programme. Advances in technology mean manufacturing processes can reduce costly product recalls by ensuring the consistent integrity of your product labelling. A product recall due to wrong and missing labels has far reaching
ramifications to a brands reputation and profitability. Automated vision inspection technologies are a great tool for not only detecting labelling issues but eliminating them from manufacturing in the first place. During this free webinar, experts from CI- Vision will discuss vision technology and how it can be effectively applied to your packaging line to prevent product mislabeling. For further information and to register for the webinar please visit
mt.com/uk-label-webinar
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FMCGNews.co.uk
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